Several years ago I had shoulder surgery on my other shoulder, so I know the drill.  I’ll be on pretty significant pain killers for perhaps as long as a week; use more moderate painkillers for a longer period; have to have my arm in a sling all of the time for 6 weeks (including when I sleep and when I’m at a computer – I’ll have to type 1-handed); and then have physical therapy for a long while.  I won’t be able to ski or bike for 5 or 6 months.

I’n pretty much dreading this.  The pain killers suck, being in a sling sucks, and being limited to one arm sucks.

I’ll start to return to my normal self soon enough.  Please be patient if I’m not as responsive to your emails as you’d like!

The demonstration of the power of a vibrant entrepreneurial community was not lost upon the rest of the world, either.  As news of TechStars, its results, and its community-transforming effects spread around the world, TechStars’ founder David Cohen began to get large numbers of inquiries asking if TechStars could help create something similar in their community.

At the end of last year, David asked if I would help lead the effort to help grow other entrepreneurial communities.  I thought about it briefly before giving a resounding “yes!” answer.  Here’s why I jumped at the opportunity:

Rarely in my career have so many things that I’m passionate about been so coincident in a single job, and I’m very excited about this opportunity!

Bring on the entrepreneurs!

As time marches on, I get increasing clarity about what’s important to me, increasing ability discern to benefits and drawbacks to various opportunities, and increasing pressure to choose wisely. I’m sure that these are all normal things that we all go through, driven by normal maturation and acquired wisdom and even the economics of our stage in life. I also think some progress through this more rapidly than others, with some small minority having a solid grasp on their life’s values and focus before graduation from college, while most learn it later in life, whereas yet others (like many entrepreneurs, including myself) make this journey last a lifetime.

A while back IntenseDebate was acquired, and I found myself between gigs (again). As per usual, I took some time to introspect. I thought I would write down (belatedly) some of the criteria I thought about for my next job. As I read my list, I think it’s fairly predictable, and maybe the most interesting thing about it is what’s not on it. And I must say that perhaps if I’d listened to my mother would have arrived at this place some decades earlier.

Without further adieu, here’s my current list of what’s currently important to me in a job:

• I want my endeavors to make a difference. Life is short and mine is more than half over. No fooling around; get on with it.

• I want my endeavors to make a difference in a way that’s consistent with my personal values. When I was younger, this was important, but perhaps less so than other job attributes such as compensation, potential for learning, and potential networking. As I get on in my career, these latter things are fading while the importance of personal values is becoming almost dominant. (This makes perfect economic sense to me – ie compensation and opportunities are more important when you are younger – so I have no regrets about my career to date.)

• I want to work with people that I enjoy being around. I mean no disrespect to many of the awesome people I’ve been lucky to be around and learn from in my past; the list is long and I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate. However we all know that we spend an enormous amount of time at work with colleagues, and the “no assholes rule” is necessary but not sufficient. The bar is rising, and I increasingly want to enjoy and respect the people that I am surrounded by. (By the way, the Buddhist response to this is not lost on me – I do live in Boulder, after all!)

• I want enjoy what I do. This includes parts of the above, the ability to laugh with others frequently, and it also means the endeavor has to have the capacity to earn respect (at least from my mom if nobody else). I’ve had jobs where there was lots of money to be made but no respect to be gained. (I’m not talking about being an investment banker, but rather about my own experience running a managed service provider). I’ve earned respect from investors, and that’s great and important, but, in my experience, it’s not nearly as cool as getting meaningful accolades from a colleague or especially a customer.

(photo credit: Ed Ellinger)

Today I heard of the passing of a friend of mine, Anthony Sloan. Anthony’s passing during his sleep was a shock because he was young and healthy and it came without warning.

Anthony was an avid and accomplished mountain biker. He was an equally avid photographer; although quite modest about his talent, his skill behind the lens was truly – I am not exaggerating – unequalled. These two passions, combined with his life-long love of the outdoors – in particular the American Southwest – leave a huge and unparalleled legacy of images of stunning beauty of some of the most remarkable vistas in America. If you happen to share any of these same passions that energized Anthony, do yourself a favor and spend some time perusing his work.

• Anthony’s Website
• A list of Anthony’s postings
  
• One of my favorite sequences

As much as I’m impressed by Anthony’s photography, I was more inspired by his personality. Anthony was one of the kindest souls I have ever met. I count myself fortunate for the times I got to ride with him, and I’m saddened that there won’t be many more.

Recently I discovered a website that documents the routines of famous people. It is fascinating browsing.

I especially liked Benjamin Franklin’s routine.

We were riding by noon.

I was barfing by 1:30. Violently.

We started making our way back, but I was slow, increasingly exhausted, and becoming not present. Many thanks to Tony and Tom, awesome motorcyclists from New Mexico, who put my exhausted self on the back of one of their motorcycles and gave me a ride back to the car, and to Mark and Mark for figuring out how to get my own bike back to the car.

Back in the hotel room, I had a vomitous Friday night. Saturday was feverish and awful, and foodless. Sunday we drove back, and I managed to keep down a Dairy Queen sundae.

I swear to Allah that one day I’ll make it to the end of Amasa Back.

Sorry, friends, for my impact on your weekend, and thanks for all of the help and support.

We had just finished our first pitch, and were swapping gear, when the calls of climbers all around suddenly became feverish. Sharon and I looked around, and across the canyon on The Bastille, at about the same altitude, and not more than 50 yards away, a climber was hanging upside-down, motionless, 10 feet below the top of the second pitch of The Bastille Crack.

We watched in disbelief. Several minutes passed and there was no movement from the climber or his belayer.

The situation was visible to climbers all around Eldo, and there was a great deal of shouting. The fallen climber and his belayer remained motionless. We were too far to render any assistance, and there were better climbers closer anyway. Nobody was sure what had transpired, or how dire the situation was. Was the climber unconscious, paralyzed by fear, badly injured, or some combination?

Suddenly the fallen climber’s arm twitched. He was conscious! As he started to slowly right himself, “rock!” echoed off the walls, and the injured climber’s rack plummeted down. This was looking bad, and getting worse.

Slowly, the injured climber righted himself, and then – very slowly – made his way up to his belayer.

Around the same time, a climber started up the route from the bottom. Belayed from below, the climber ascended extraordinarily quickly; it was clear that this was a very experienced climber. He reached the ledge just after the injured climber, probably no more than 15 minutes after the fall.

We could see the rescuer build his own anchor, tie in, and then check the tie-in of the belayer and injured climber.

Some minutes elapsed. The rescuer set up a rappel for the injured climber, and, very slowly and with difficulty for the injured climber, lowered him to the ground. By this time Rocky Mountain Rescue and several emergency vehicles were on the scene, and the climber was loaded into an ambulance and rushed away. This was within probably 30 minutes of the fall.

The rescuer subsequently set-up a rappel for the belayer, and lowered him to the ground as well.

After witnessing all of this, Sharon and I were rattled, and decided to not continue our climb. We downclimbed an easy escape, and on our return to the car, spoke with the rescuer. What we learned was that the injured climber had been leading the Bastille Crack, had fallen, and had pulled a piece of protection, but had two more that stuck. However, with the length of his fall, he hit the belay ledge, which knocked him unconscious, as well as injured both his shoulder and hip. The climber had been hanging unconscious upside-down for several minutes!

It turns out that the belayer was his 16-year old son.

If your leader fell, and was hanging unconscious 15 feet below you 150 feet off the ground, would you know what do to? What if you were 16, and the leader was your father?

A nurse on the scene told us that both father and son were clearly in shock when they reached the ground.

I think it fortunate that such an experienced climber was nearby, or things could have been much worse.

I went outside to shoo them away. One of them tried to run, but couldn’t really; it had a broken hind leg.

He can stay.

Oh wait, now’s he’s eating my shrubberies. He’s got to go.