Volume 1 of A Short Course for the Use of Your Nervous System According to the Instructions of the Manufacturers

Welcome!

The better you know how to breathe, the better you can perform the mental activities of your day.

If you spend a lot of time making decisions and solving hard problems with your mind, having access to simple techniques like these will help you stay focussed, keep your calm and guide your thoughts towards your goals and aspirations.

Personally, what I always loved about these techniques is that I can adjust my current mental state rapidly to what I need it to be depending on the situation and challenge ahead.

It is like an app-store for your mind!

For example:

1. If you have trouble focussing, breathing deeply will get your focus back in mere seconds.
2. If you feel stressed out, alternating your breath between your left and right nostril will take off the edge quickly.
3. If thoughts crowd your mind and you need to make a decision, practicing one-minute breath will help you rapidly control your mind.

These techniques exist.

They’re easy to learn.

Yet, until recently these techniques were kept secret. You are at the fore-front of learning how to train like a Jedi!

In the coming days, I would like to teach you 3 essential Kundalini Yoga breathing techniques that I have personally tested and validated their benefits over extended periods of time. I will introduce you to each technique individually and provide you with a simple set of homework exercises respectively.

The goal for me is to show you simple, easy and effective techniques that you can easily incorporate into your daily life.

The real Jedi-Training

Kundalini Yoga is the closest we have to real Jedi-Training.

Historically, Kundalini Yoga is considered the most powerful, most comprehensive and effective yogic school in existence. In practical terms, the techniques taught in Kundalini Yoga are designed to rapidly affect the two control-systems in your body: Your nervous and hormonal system.

Originating in the north-indian region of Punjab, and passed on through the centuries within the Sikh culture. Its techniques were kept strictly secret until recently.

In 1969, Kundalini Yoga and Meditation was first openly taught in the West by Harbhajan Singh Khalsa as a very accessible way to feel better, think better and make better decisions.

It is the only Yogic school that is taught “within society.” This means the techniques I will teach you were designed **for people who have a real life, run businesses, and have a social and a family life to attend to.

Kundalini Yoga is free of “magical mystery mumbo-jumbo” and instead provides a straight-forward approach to utilizing millennia-old yogic techniques to deal with the challenges of our times.

It is for people who want to increase their decision-making ability to increase their personal success and the success of the people around them.

Lastly, Kundalini Yoga does not require you to “believe” in anything else but your personal success. It is practiced and taught very matter-of-factly. Again, if your day-to-day is spent making decisions and solving hard problems you’ll gain an advantage having these tools in your tool-belt.

Setting your mind

First things first.

Let’s set you up for success with these 3 techniques.

The first thing I will teach you is to mentally prepare yourself to benefit at a maximum from these and future breathing techniques. When you have the right mind-set, it will be easier for you to get the most out of the other techniques.

This first part is considered a Psycho-Cybernetic exercise in which you “pre-experience” your desired outcome by imagination. When given vivid mental scenarios, your nervous system can not distinguish between what is real and what is imagined. We will be using this opportunity to pre-program an ideal outcome before moving on to the actual techniques.

This type of pre-experiencing a desired outcome is common in sports psychology to maximize the success of the actual practice.

Instructions

To kick-start your learning process, set aside 3 minutes and read the following section carefully. While you are reading it, mentally form a detailed picture of yourself acting out the instructions. Use your imagination to the fullest and enjoy the process.

Notice that this is a mental exercise and you are not required to physically act-out the instructions just yet. In the next sections, I will instruct you to implement the actual techniques but for the this first part all you have to do is use your imagination.

• Imagine yourself sitting on a comfortable chair in a quiet room.
• See your feet planted firmly on the floor. Your feet and legs feel alert and relaxed.
• See yourself turning off your phone and any other distractions around you.
• See yourself straightening your spine.
• Notice how the muscles of your back stay relaxed.
• Notice that your chest, your shoulders, your arms and your face relax.
• See yourself sitting calmly with your focus on your breath.
• See yourself breathing deeply and without effort.
• Notice how you feel confident about your breathing.
• Observe yourself staying focussed and staying free of distractions.
• See yourself experiencing a sense of success and accomplishment.
• See yourself calm and clear-headed.
• See yourself bringing this calmness and clear-headedness into your work day.
• See yourself calmly thinking and evaluating options.
• See yourself finding solutions to hard problems.
• See yourself staying calm in the midst of a stressful work day.

Your homework for the next 3 days

For the next 3 days, find 3 minutes and re-read and mentally rehearse the preceding list carefully.

While you are reading it, create a clear and sharp mental picture of yourself. Increase the fidelity, the sights, sounds and feelings with every session.

While you can continue giving the techniques a spin, I highly recommend doing this prep-work beforehand.

Next steps

Now that you have prepared your mind-set correctly, you are ready to move on the actual techniques.

In the following parts, we will look at 3 specific breathing techniques. With your mind-set prepared correctly, I am certain that you will quickly pick up the practice.

I recommend you to learn one technique for a few days instead of rushing through all of them at once.

1. Increase your focus with Deep Breathing

Deep breathing is an essential yogic technique that underlies all others.

It is a simple technique but it also is still possible to do it wrong. I want you to know the exact way to do it right. Deep breathing will rapidly relax your body and calm your mind.

After just a minute of deep breathing you will notice a significant improvement in how you think and feel about yourself, your environment and your challenges ahead.

And, as a little a teaser, there is a trick to breathing deeper that you most likely do not know.

Instructions

Here is how to prepare your Deep Breathing session:

1. Sit up and straighten your spine.
2. Place your feet firmly on the ground.
3. Slightly tilt your pelvis forward to further elongate your spine.
4. Gently lift your chest to allow your belly to relax.
5. Relax your shoulders.
6. Relax your face.
7. Close your eyes.

For the next moments I want you to observe your breath without manipulating it. If your breath is currently shallow, that’s okay. Give yourself 10–20 seconds for this observation.

Start deep breathing through your nose on your next EXHALE:

1. Begin by gently relaxing your upper lungs letting your breath flow out.
2. Continue your exhale by gently squeezing your ribcage from top to bottom.
3. Continue your exhale by slowly pulling in your navel towards your spine pushing out more air.
4. Finish your exhale by pulling your navel just one or two more inches further towards your spine.
5. To begin your inhale, relax the muscles around your navel, ribcage and shoulders.
6. Let air naturally and without effort flow into your abdominal region, let your belly expand.
7. Continue your inhale by letting your ribcage fill and expand itself.
8. Finish your inhale by letting your upper lungs fill and expand. It’s easy to tense up a bit here, so mentally remind yourself to relax here.
9. Repeat by starting at step 1.
10. Finish your session by holding in your last inhale for 3–5 seconds.
11. Exhale and relax for 10 seconds.

Your homework for the next 3 days

Day 1

• Set aside 3 minutes and re-read the instructions above.
• Begin with 10 seconds of observing your current breath without manipulation.
• Complete 5 deep breaths using the instructions with your eyes closed.

Day 2:

• Set aside 3 minutes and re-read the instructions above.
• Begin with 10 seconds of observing your current breath without manipulation.
• Complete 10 deep breaths using the instructions with your eyes closed.

Day 3:

• Set aside 5 minutes and re-read the instructions above.
• Begin with 10 seconds of observing your current breath without manipulation.
• Complete 15 deep breaths using the instructions with your eyes closed.

Notes

The exhale is done “mechanically.” That is to say, you will use the power of the muscles of your upper chest, the muscles around your ribcage and the muscles of your abdomen to squeeze out the air from your lungs. You start at the top of your lungs and finish with your abdomen and navel.

The inhale should happen “effortlessly.” That is to say, try to relax the muscles around your lungs and let air flow in. You start inhaling into your abdomen and finish at the top of your lungs.

2. Make better, more rational decisions with Alternate Nostril Breathing

When your mind is clear and your emotions calm you can observe a situation from all angles and make your best decision.

When you feel stressed and emotionally crowded it is much harder to make an objective decision.

This technique will help reset your thinking/feeling system within a minute or two. This is one of my personal all-time favorite ways to feel better when things get crazy and I have to make a clear decision. Alternate nostril breathing is easy and can be done pretty much anywhere and anytime.

I can’t wait to show you this one.

Instructions

Here is how to prepare your alternate nostril breathing session:

1. Sit up and straighten your spine.
2. Place your feet firmly on the ground.
3. Slightly tilt your pelvis forward to further elongate your spine.
4. Gently lift your chest to allow your belly to relax.
5. Relax your shoulders.
6. Relax your face.
7. Close your eyes.

After giving yourself a few seconds to settle into this position, place your left hand on your left thigh. The fingers of your left hand are relaxed.

Now bring your right hand towards your face. The fingers of your right hand are together and your fingertips point towards the ceiling.

To practice Alternate Nostril breathing do this:

1. Your INHALE: Place the soft padding of your right thumb under your right nostril to block it off and deeply inhale through your left nostril.
2. Your EXHALE: Use your right pinky to gently block off your left nostril. Blocking off your left nostril will direct all the air of your exhale to exit through your right nostril.
3. Repeat: INHALE through your LEFT nostril and EXHALE through your RIGHT nostril.
4. Continue for 1–3 minutes.
5. To finish up, exhale completely and hold your breath out for 3–5 seconds. The relax for a few seconds.

Your homework for the next 3 days

Day 1:

• Set aside 3 minutes and re-read the instructions above.
• Begin with 10 seconds of observing your current breath without manipulation.
• Complete 10 rounds of alternate nostril breathing with your eyes closed.

Day 2:

• Set aside 3 minutes and re-read the instructions above.
• Begin with 10 seconds of observing your current breath without manipulation.
• Complete 15 rounds of alternate nostril breathing with your eyes closed.

Day 3:

• Set aside 3 minutes and re-read the instructions above.
• Begin with 10 seconds of observing your current breath without manipulation.
• Complete 20 rounds of alternate nostril breathing with your eyes closed.

Notes

One of your nostrils is usually more stuffed than the other. If you feel you’re not getting air in or out fast enough, quickly blow your nose before a session.

Re-use the deep breathing technique you learned earlier to really get the most out of this one.

When you use your pinky to block your left nostril, be gentle but ensure that you block off air-flow completely.

When you use the soft padding of your thumb to block off your right nostril, place it under the opening. You will notice it fits nicely.

3. Learn how to control your mind with One-Minute Breath

Here is a challenge.

With the two preceding techniques under your belt, it’s time to step up your game.

Our mind produces hundreds of thoughts per minute (and that’s a good thing.) However, only when you have a steering-wheel you can guide and direct your thoughts towards the goals you have in your professional and personal life. Learning to do the one-minute breath will allow you to rapidly gain control over your thoughts in hectic and stressful times.

Technically speaking, breathing at the rate of one breath per minute develops cooperation between the hemispheres of the brain, brings the mind under control and releases worry and anxieties.

Another cool thing is that like Deep Breathing, it’s pretty easy to do without anyone around you noticing you’re doing it. So, here is another really cool stealth technique for you.

A heads-up

In practice, the goal of a One-Minute Breath is to segment your breath into three 20-second partitions:

• Inhale for 20 seconds
• Hold your breath in for 20 second
• Exhale for 20 seconds

However, this takes real practice and can be overwhelming the first few times. So, to make it easier for you to learn, we will begin with smaller partitions starting at 3 seconds each and gradually increase over time.

Instructions

Here is how to prepare your one-minute breath session:

1. Sit up and straighten your spine.
2. Place your feet firmly on the ground.
3. Slightly tilt your pelvis forward to further elongate your spine.
4. Gently lift your chest to allow your belly to relax.
5. Relax your shoulders.
6. Relax your face.
7. Close your eyes.

For the next moments I want you to observe your breath without manipulating it. If your breath is currently shallow, that’s okay. Give yourself 10 seconds for this observation.

1. Slowly inhale through your nose for 5 seconds.
2. Suspend your breath for 5 seconds, lifting your chest and relaxing your shoulders.
3. Slowly exhale through your nose for 5 seconds.
4. Without pausing, inhale through your nose 5–6 seconds
5. Suspend your breath for 5–6 seconds, lifting your chest and relaxing your shoulders.
6. Slowly exhale through your nose for 5–6 seconds.
7. Continue this cycle for 1–3 minutes while gradually increasing the length of each breath respectively.
8. To finish, inhale deeply, hold your breath for 3 seconds, exhale and relax for a few more seconds.

Your homework for the coming 3 days

Day 1:

• Set aside 3 minutes and re-read the instructions above.
• Begin with 10 seconds of observing your current breath without manipulation.
• Complete 5 rounds of one-minute breath starting at 5-second partitions and working up towards 8 seconds.

Day 2:

• Set aside 3 minutes and re-read the instructions above.
• Begin with 10 seconds of observing your current breath without manipulation.
• Complete 10 rounds of one-minute breath starting at 5-second partitions and working up towards 8 seconds.

Day 3:

• Set aside 3 minutes and re-read the instructions above.
• Begin with 10 seconds of observing your current breath without manipulation.
• Complete 20 rounds of one-minute breath starting at 5-second partitions and working up towards 10 seconds.

Notes

On suspending your breath:

It’s easy to tense up around your shoulders when suspending your breath. I know I still do sometimes. So, remind yourself periodically to relax your shoulders.

If you really feel like you’re running out of air, you can always inhale a few more ‘sips’ to make it easier and take away the tension.

The tip of the iceberg

What you have learned is the tip of the ice-berg.

There are hundreds more Kundalini Yoga breathing and meditation techniques that, just like an app-store for your mind, can benefit you immensely when tackling the inner and outer challenges you face today and tomorrow.

You now know how to…

1. Optimize your practice by pre-programming your mind for success
2. Regain focus and clarity using Deep Breathing
3. Overcome stress and anxieties using Alternate Nostril Breathing
4. Learn to control your thoughts using One-Minute Breath

With a little bit of practice, I am confident these techniques can serve you well as they have served me and prepare you for learning more.

Finally, if you have followed this short course and want to learn more or have questions, I would love to hear from you. Please email me atalexis.rondeau@gmail.com or comment below.

Thank you and with best wishes,

Alexis Rondeau

The odds are 3 to 1 against you, so how will you make sure you win?

I would like to share a simple map on how Understanding (What to do to succeed) and Skill (How to do things correctly) work either for or against you in your quest to personal and professional success.

(Right now, I am learning a lot after having done the right things in the wrong order in a recent venture.)

But, learning is good, so let me indulge you in my failures and successes alike and provide you with a map that will hopefully make sailing smoother for you.

1. The North-Eastern Land of Milk and Honey: Doing the Right Things Right

The best-case scenario (aptly colored in green in our map.)

You’ve done your research and you’ve practiced your skill-set. You’ve gained an understanding of what the right steps are and you’ve deeply learned how to do them right.

For example: You know that, to start a business, you want to talk to customers to understand their pain. You understand the premise of it. Plus, you’ve done your research about how to do these customer interviews correctly! You’ve read up on how to avoid leading questions, and that talking to your potential customers actually means listening most of the time.

There is a very good chance you’ll learn something of value for yourself and create the success you seek.

2. The South-Eastern Mountains of Jon Snow: Doing the Right Things Wrong

One of the two “better” worse-case scenarios (because you’ll at least learn a little bit if you are lucky, but likely you’ll still fail)

“You know you want to do the right thing but you know nothing on how to do it.”

For example: You understand how important it is to talk to customers. You’ve read high-level blog posts about how to find them and gotten a few leads. Unfortunately, you did not spend any time learning how to talk to them. So, instead of listening, you wind up pitching your idea and receive luke-warm enthusiasm and a bunch of maybes. You tried to do the right thing (talk to customers) but wound up sweating the technique. This will likely kill your startup. Not right now but in the future.

3. The North-Western Desert of Confusion: Doing the Wrong Things Right

Another one of the “better” worse-case scenarios (because you’ll at least learn a little bit):

“You’re really good at it but it still doesn’t work.”

For example: You didn’t read about listening to customers first but instead plowed through (months) of learning to code up web-applications. At this point you can build anything and so you do. An idea pops into your head, you go full-force on it without considering “who” would actually use it. It’s a great idea. You mom thinks it’s a sure winner. And because you’re skilled, you build this thing with all the latest hoo-ha’s the market has to offer. It’s a TDDNoSQLAgileScalaHerokuSSL of a beast. It works and it will scale to millions of users.

But they never come. Because you did the wrong thing. Albeit, technically, you did it well. It’s a sad story.

4. The South-Western Swamps of Ignorance: Doing the Wrong Things Wrong

This one is arguably the worst. You’re uninformed about what your first step should be and you do not have the skills to execute.

You’re screwed.

You “think” that starting a startup today means that, just like Zuck in The Social Network, you bang your fingers (or head) against a keyboard just long enough until, magically, someone throws $100k at you (while you’re wearing a bathrobe.)

Then, after a bit more banging against your keyboard, mysteriously, millions of users flock to your thing. And although you don’t even know how to code or how to deploy to a server your company is valued at billions of dollar. It’s all magic. Just like in the movies. Except it isn’t.

If you do the wrong things incorrectly, you’ll wind up with nothing, not even a solid lesson or two. You’ll have to completely revisit how you think about this stuff.

How to Increase Your Chance of Success

Whatever your doing right now–be it starting a company, trying to do a better job at work, improving your lifestyle–you can increase your odds of success knowing about the map above.

Broaden Your Horizon

Increasing your understanding means you have to broaden your horizon.

Aim to deeply understand the place you’re trying to reach. Understand the dynamics and its life-cycles. You can’t learn enough, always strive to learn more and vaster. Cover a lot of ground. Read books, blogs, newsletters, watch videos, listen to podcasts and talk to experienced entrepreneurs and practitioners. Never stop learning more.

Sharpen your skills

Sharpening your skills means you want to go really deep and master a skill.

Because, even when you know the right things to do, you’ll still need to make sure you’re doing them right.

Learn a skill and get really deep into it. Become the reigning expert on it. For example, if you want to be the technical person, learn to program and then implement a couple of projects end-to-end. From the first line of code to the finishing touches on running it in a production environment.

Final words

First of all, thank you for reading this. Clearly, this isn’t a complete theory. But I’ve been using it regularly now to monitor what I am doing against my personal success metrics.

My examples have been around technology entrepreneurship but I think it can be applied to other fields of interest: Love, sex, education, diets.

How do you navigate yourself to success? Share your experience in the comments below.

Dear Friends,

It’s been an exciting journey and you are literally the first ones to learn about this.

I would like to share with what my friend Adrian and I have been working on.

It’s called “Huddle Metrics” and basically it let’s you safely share and compare the important numbers in your life with other people in a similar place.

To kick off with an example on how these “Huddles” can help you make better decisions, I’ve created one all around rent and roommates in Brooklyn.

I’ll explain it in detail below and I think you will like it:

Do you live with roommates in Brooklyn?

Do you spend a significant portion of your income on rent and utilities?

Would you like to know what’s market in your neighborhood?

This “Huddle” is a safe place to share and compare your own monthly rent with everyone else’s. All you need to do is provide your own rent and utilities anonymously. Then you get to see what everyone else is paying. Filter, slice and dice rent by square footage, the neighborhood, and how many roommates there are.

Why join? Having access to “real data” allows you to make better decisions for your next move. By joining this Huddle you’ll get a better understanding of the roommate rent market in Brooklyn. In particular, when enough people have joined, you’ll be able to learn what’s market in a neighborhood you’ve been maybe eyeing to move to.

So, here is what you need to do to get started if you would like to join:

* First, check out this demo to get an idea how this works. * Secondly, if you like what you’re seeing, you should sign up! * Lastly, the more people join, the more data you get. If you dig it, please share this link with your Brooklyn friends.

Happy Huddlin’!

Alexis

PS: Feedback, questions are absolutely welcome! Please feel free to comment here or send me an email to alexis.rondeau@gmail.com.

Dear Friend,

Today marks a pivotal day in my life.

Unfortunately (it seems unfortunate today, but only time will tell) we–A, D and I–have not gotten the successful responses from investors we had hoped for.

I must now shift gears and find a paying job to live. It is a hard pill to swallow. Of all things I have worked on and of all people, it has been an absolute pleasure.

In fact, if I had (all, or at least enough to live) the money in the world, I would work on this with A and D.

But I don’t. I have far extended my personal savings.

I have a runway of 1 month and it does not look like there is venture capital coming in in the coming 3-6 months.

Our startup “HM” has come a long way in the past 9 months.

I have learned so much in the process.

We started out in February with the idea for VA. “What if we worked with VCs and their portfolio to collect everyone’s salary, equity and bonus information, anonymize it in a private network and make it accessible and searchable for all participants?”

Within 2 months we already had 130 startups on board. In August it was twice that.

In total, as of today, this pilot system is tracking salaries, equities, bonuses, revenue, marketing costs and much more of companies that themselves have raised $2,270,000,000 in funding.

We account for more than $224,000,000 in salaries across 6,533 employees nationwide.

Well, that all sounds good, right? It gets even better!

2 months ago, around August, we sat down and really analyzed what we were “actually doing” here. We realized that our pilot successfully described what we have come to call a “Data Community.” A safe place for peers to share their most sensitive data at the benefit of everyone. You get to know what’s really market. You can use it make better decisions. For hiring. For allocating equity. For planning your next round. For running your business.

Since then, I have worked hard on creating a self-serve platform that allows any community (real or imaginary) to create “Data Communities” for themselves and their information.

It came out really, really nice.

First, I went ahead and made very rough sketches for the general use cases. There were 2 rounds of review with the team called M(ockup)1 and M2. Those led into developing the actual application prototypes P(rototype)1 and P2. P2 was the basis for V(ersion)1 which we softly released past Thursday.

As a team of 1 covering planning, specification, designing, modeling, testing, implementing and polishing I am proud. Work was focussed and fast enough to have something in our hands to play with and reason about.

On a technical level, it is a moderately complex data model with a few nice twists to it. There is the requirement of anonymity of data which we are solving well. There is the ability to basically create a collaborative, focussed spreadsheet with user-defined data types based on what they want the community to share. Similar to a survey data has to be stored in a specific, unconventional way. And we have to push it even further. The end-user experience is important, too. After all, if it’s clunky no one wants to use it.

But.

And here comes the big but.

Even with a polished, elegant and well-designed product and a potential array of markets we can go into, if there is no money to support ourselves, it’s impossible to continue full-time on it.

Which is where I find myself today.

Again, if I had enough money to support my basic needs (and maybe move into a nicer place where my room has a bed instead of a couch and a window) I would continue working on this and push the limits on what we can do with it.

Alas, that’s not happening today. Because, even though we’ve been working with VC funds in the past 9 months, none of them seem to be thoroughly interested in giving us money. Apparently they can see the value created by our Data Community software for their own portfolios but not beyond. And I understand that it is a stretch. But that’s where the Venture in Venture Capital should come in.

In the meantime, this means finding paid great work.

I am a creator.

It’s been a very stressful 4 weeks.

The uncertainty if we get funding and my debt that I haven’t tackled yet are affecting me negatively. The only way is forward. I try to stay on top of my thoughts to not let a depression creep in. That has been working quiet well.

With all this stress I have realized a few simple things. First off, my thoughts definitely control my experience of life. In particular, I have been waking up at night with anxiety about me, my future and what I could have or should have done. Just thinking those thoughts in the middle of the night make my body cringe and twist. Isn’t that amazing? Just by thinking about future conflicts and problems (who are not real yet and will unfold as they may happen) turns my body into fight-or-flight mode. That drains my energy that I would rather put towards actually solving the issues at hand.

It is relatively simple: Control my thoughts so they do not affect me negatively and instead focus on a goal-oriented and positive outcome. If I can get my body into fight-or-flight mode just by thinking stressful thoughts, then I can get my body into success-mode by thinking about the positive aspects of my situation and how I want it to turn out.

Case in point, just a year ago I actively set time aside every day for a while to “imagineer” a productive, happy and successful future where I would work with great people in an interesting space on something related to Venture Capital. Fast forward less than 12 months and I actually am working with amazing people on an exciting and innovative system with a beautiful office space in the financial district of New York.

But I forgot to “Imagineer” one thing and this is my great learning.

In my mind, I created a world (as it exists now!) where the people I work with are smart, driven and that I can learn a lot from myself. I imagined a world where the problem we’re working on is new, exciting and even a little preposterous. Or, as Paul Graham calls this type of problem “Frighteningly Ambitious Startup Ideas.” Again, the work environment is pristine and there is a sense of ambition and heroism that we have thrived upon.

I just forgot about imagineering that this business would be making copious amounts of money to cover my living expenses and allows me to pay off my tax-debt to feel free again.

Yup, if we had money coming in right now, enough money to cover my rent, my telephone, my metro card, my food, my tax payments, the occasional night on the town, the occasional trip upstate, 10% to save, I would feel so much better.

I did just jump into it. I didn’t think about it much. It was a decision coming straight from my gut. “I have to do this.” And I think it was the right decision to drop pretty much everything (not that there was so much going on a year ago anyways) and go “balls-to-the-wall” forward with VA.

I have learned a lot. I am learning something new every day.

But as of now, I think we are still missing one of the most important parts of a successful business: A HUNGRY market.

Plus, since – as Peter Thiel calls it – we have to go from “Zero to One”, and that means extra resistance sometimes, we are also not attracting that level of confidence from outside investors in a way I think we need to.

Right now, to continue working on this company, I need money. I need fuel. Again, just enough to cover the basics of living. But without it, it won’t work and if nothing happens in the coming 10 days, I will have to find a job immediately to deal with my finances properly.

Healthcare would be nice to have, too.

So, what does this mean for today?

First off, as the next step, I will write out my goals for this week. I am not 100% sure yet what they will be but having some type of plan helps even if it changes.

Secondly, I will make a list of things that I need to do to reach those goals.

Thirdly, I will start working on the first piece moving closer to completion.

Here is an un-ordered list of things on my mind to achieve:

• Touch base with friends and begin career networking
• Refine HM forms and views with validations and visually
• Wrap up PRIVATE P3 so that PUBLIC V1 development/configuration can begin coming week
• Consolidate my stuff that’s flying around at The Farm
• Write daily
• Meditate daily
• Cook awesome and healthy food

How to make giant bubbles

I’ve compiled the following giant bubble solution recipe and instructions after months of trial-and-error, testing dozens of recipes, ingredients etc.

What follows is my personal ultimate recipe and instructions for wands that have allowed me to make giant bubbles in the US and Europe.

Your upfront cost is about $40, the most expensive is the must-have “secret ingredient” called J-Lube, which costs about $20. It’s not cheap BUT one container of J-Lube will last for dozens and dozens and dozens of buckets of bubble solution.

Bubble Solution Recipe

Metric system/European products

• 450ml Dish soap concentrate (Fairy Ultra Yellow, 450ml[^3])
• 10mg J-Lube[^2]
• 10L water

US Measurements/US products

• 1 Big Plastic Bucket
• 1 Bottle 24floz Dawn Ultra Dish Soap[^4]
• 1 Tbsp of J-Lube[^1]
• 3 Gallons of luke-warm Water

Mixing

• Mix J-Lube with a cup of warm water
• Mix Soap with water
• Pour in J-Lube/water mix

How to make bubble wands

Shopping list (Total ~$10 or less)

• 2 Regular Dowel Sticks
• 100% Cotton Rope
• Screws, Zip-Ties or Duct-Tape for attaching

Steps

• Cut off a long piece of rope 3x the length of one dowel
• Cut rope into 2 pieces: 1x length of dowel, 2x length of dowel
• If your rope has a nylon core, pull it out inch by inch
• Knot ropes
• Attach knotted edges to dowels

Preparation

• Let sit for a few hours
• Soak Bubble Wand Ropes in solution for at least 20 minutes

Tips & Tricks

• Even Big Ass Bubbles are sensitive. It will take some time and experiments to figure out what works best in your area and current season

Ideal days

Anytime there’s high humidty and some wind (but not too strong).

• Humid Spring and Fall days

  • Bubbles go biggest and last longest right after a rainfall, when the air humidity is very high, usually in Spring and Fall
  • Can make bubbles in direct sunlight because the light isn’t strong enough yet to evaporate the bubbles

• Cold Winter days

  • Bubbles also work really well in cold temperatures down to a few degrees below freezing
  • Can make bubbles in direct sunlight because the light isn’t strong enough yet to evaporate the bubbles

Known issues in Summer

• Problem: When dissolving J-Lube powder, it forms lumps instead of spreading out
• Solution: Use a whisk
• Problem: It’s summer, middle of the day, I’m standing in the sun and my bubbles are popping too quickly or not forming at all
• Solution: Step into the shade of a tree, avoid direct hot sunshine so the bubbles don’t immediately evaporate
• Problem: It’s summer, I’m standing in the shade and my bubbles still won’t work
• Solution: It’s too hot and humidity is likely very low. Bubbles evaporate too quickly because it’s too dry. Wait until the evening.

Known issues in Winter

• Problem: It’s Winter, it’s -5℃ or less and the bubbles aren’t working well
• Solution: The air is devoid of humidity, so you’ll have to wait until snow melts and ambient humidity rises again

Related

• Mr Bubbles in Bushwick (Video)
• Giant Bubbles In Bushwick
• Making Big Bubbles

[^1]: Amazon US: J-Lube Polyethylene Polymer http://www.amazon.com/J-lube-Hand-Lubricant-Concentrate-Veterinarian/dp/B004T4L49O/ [^2]: Amazon DE: J-Lube Polyethylene Polymer https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Lube-Powder-White-10oz/dp/B006G2S17A [^3]: Amazon DE: Fairy Ultra Yellow https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Concentrate-Dishwasher-Detergent-Dishwashing-Liquid/dp/B0756Z2394 [^4]: Amazon US: Dawn Ultra https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Ultra-Dishwashing-Liquid-Original/dp/B075MMQX9S/

Saturday July 12, 2014 2:26pm 95 Spring Street 2nd Floor New York City

Dear Friend,

I’ve been learning a lot lately, small and large things, and I want to make a habit out of sharing those bits and pieces regularly. For one, you’ll get nice little tokens of insight and practical tips. Also, I get to exercise my writing more, which is a goal for me this year. So, it’s a win-win for both of us.

Here are a few things I’ve learned in the past 4 days:

Index cards are awesome for jotting down ideas and concepts without the need to categorize them (yet)

This is my biggest and most exciting find of the week. Index cards. Like the ones you can buy in bulk at Staples.

They’re amazing to jot down ideas and thoughts quickly and put them away. I find that my mind is filled and sometimes overflows from having too many thoughts and ideas float around.

It feels so good to write a single concept (usually a sentence or two plus a few little icons that visualize what I’m trying to say) on one card and then put it on the stack of other ideas.

I’m only starting to use them but I can already tell how they will transform my creative work by allowing for representing non-linear ideas and thoughts and then, later, let me re-arrange them to form a story-line.

If you can, buy a stack of cards today, get a sharpie and write down the 10 things that are on your mind right now.

You’ll be surprised how liberating it is to have them each individually on a card instead of in a list on a normal piece of paper.

Brainwork, like physical activity, needs warming up

I was just reading this in a book on advertising and it prompted me to think about it. Yes, I agree, it makes a lot of sense to ease into a new task or topic and provide my brain with the right type of information and context. This doesn’t have to be a lot of time but just taking a moment, reviewing notes, scribbling a few thoughts, “stretch” the mind feels right. A cold brain isn’t flexible enough to come up with creative ideas and new concepts. Feeding the brain in the beginning (and feeding your body with healthy foods!) is a very good idea.

Having said this, I’ve started reading or watching something inspirational as one of my first things in the morning. Yesterday I watched Baz Luhrmann’s “Wear Sunscreen”–The mother of inspirational videos. Other times I read a few paragraphs of an inspiring person such as Walt Disney or Brian Eno.

I highly recommend warming your mind up at the beginning of the day and at the start of a new task.

When working on a time-boxed activity, it helps to see how much time REMAINS

I just realized this when my current activity (“Write an inspirational blog post”) kicked in on TimeStacks. Just yesterday I added small flashing alert for the TimeStacks browser-tab that shows you what you should be focussing on. I noticed how I would go back to the page to see how much time really was left and that prompted me to put in that time as part of the tab.

Now, it’s much easier to keep the pressure on! For example, for writing this piece my tab tells me I have 24 minutes left.

Which also tells me that I want to move onto the next learning.

But basically, if you are time-boxing an activity and you want to keep the creative pressure on, you want to have a countdown timer on that puppy.

Improving my diet has vastly increased my sense of smell

Very simple and very powerful stuff. I’ve been changing my diet to exclude (mostly) sugar and carbs for most of the week. It’s been going well (my favorite new finding on what to eat follows below) and yesterday I noticed an intensely increased sensitivity to smell.

While walking through Williamsburg with Val, I was able to smell…

• How one bar that smelled fresh and clean while another one that smelled straight-up like a sewer
• The wafts of food from restaurants down to their ingredients and their spices

I assumed it was because I had a solid appetite but even after we had eaten the smells continued to be bold and distinct.

Maybe it’s just New York in the summer, maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten dinner yet but I strongly believe it’s my newly found diet that allowed me to smell things on a level I haven’t before.

It definitely felt like a superpower.

I don’t get hungry all day if I have a goji berry, sunflower, flax and hemp seed shake in the morning

It’s the weirdest thing. I’ve started making different kinds of shakes in the morning since we’ve gotten a mixer and began to add 3 spoon full of this store-bought berry/seed mixture.

First I just did it for the taste and the fiber but several days in a row, this shake filled me up far into dinner.

Usually I get really hungry for lunch but again and again, I felt satisfied and energized until later in the day.

…

Well, that’s a few of my learnings this week. They’re a little all over the place but you get the idea I think.

Now, I’m curious: What have you learned this week?

Sincerely,

Alexis

Tuesday July 1, 4:33pm, New York City

Dear Friend,

I hope you’re doing great.

Yesterday I conducted a little experiment and had to think of you and I think you’ll appreciate this.

You see, I know you’re working a hard job every day and sometimes things get stressful. I think I’ve found something for you that’ll help you get your mind off of work for a few minutes every once in a while.

You know how they say to leave a problem by itself when you can’t figure out a solution? That works really well for me and probably for you, too.

Relaxation Means Creative Problem-Solving

A lot of the creative problem-solving happens when we’re not actively thinking about the issue but kind of let it work in the background.

For example. I’ve been building this piece of software over the past 3 weeks. Very intense stuff. I’d been staring at my screen for hours and days and weeks on end. By yesterday afternoon my brain was fried. I needed to do something completely different just to clear out my “Brain Random Access Memory (RAM).”

What I did helped me take a mental step back from the project and rethink a bunch of core assumptions I had about “how things should work.”

I got in the office this morning and refactored 5 parts of the application. It’s now much easier to use, easier to extend and much easier to maintain.

YOU’LL THINK I’M NUTS

Now, maybe you’ll think I’m nuts when I tell you what I did all evening but MAN, it was so relaxing and so different to programming that I want to do it AGAIN tonight. Just to give myself time to think through some of those pesky algorithms.

Okay, now I gotta tell you what I’ve been doing…

In two words…

Giant. Bubbles.

Yup, you read that correctly.

Giant bubbles.

As in: Making giant, huge-ass, humungous, wobbling soap bubbles. Larger-than-life-sized, bubbly, squiggly, soapy bubbles floating through the air.

And I made them. And it was glorious. For hours.

You see, last week I started experimenting with a few different ‘recipes’ for making a soap solution that would allow me to make those big buggers.

The first experiment failed. The internet said to use dish washing detergent and GLYCERIN but let me tell you that doesn’t work.

I finally wound up finding a recipe that called for a very hard-to-find powder that turns the soap/water mix into sort of a slimy soap sludge. It gets really thick.

But, as it turns out, that secret ingredient turned into bubbles 3 feet, 5 feet, 10 FEET LONG and more! As you can tell, I’m really excited about this.

So. Much. Fun.

It was. So. Much. Fun.

And that’s why I had to think of you.

I know you love fun. (Also, it’s summer!)

And I think you need to take your mind off your day-to-day thoughts. To get the creative juices flowing again. To kick back, mentally, and let things happen by themselves.

Using a special solution (it really works), two sticks and a piece of string as your wand, you’ll make mega-sized bubbles in MINUTES and you’ll relax your mind and just enjoy the moment.

Can’t Wait

I can’t wait to show ya. And I can’t wait to hear what new ideas this will spark in you.

Which is why I would like to invite you to come over to my place where I’ve got a gallon of solution, a wand and a super sweet rooftop waiting for us to make bubbles.

Email me if this Saturday works for ya and we’ll make this happen.

With best wishes and talk soon,

Alexis

 

PS: I’ve found a few factors that make the biggest, best bubbles:

• A little wind is very good because you basically don’t have to do anything but hold up the wand.
• Too much wind will break your bubbles almost immediately.
• Dry air will make it hard but usually New York is nice and humid during the summer.
• It’s better to make the bubbles in shade because direct sunlight will make them pop quickly.

PPS: Oh, and yes, the mixture I’ve figured out is fool-proof otherwise. Let me know if you’d like the recipe.

PPPS: Obviously, this post isn’t about bubbles but the act of mentally shelving a hard problem for a while and instead doing something completely different.

Brian Eno on Surrender

Inspiration by Brian Eno (Dunhill Interview, 2013)

“Enthusiasm, as in ‘I really, really want to know how this turns out.’ will carry you through many long nights.”

“However, thinking ‘I ought to do that’ dries up quickly and won’t get you far.”

It’s not so much creating something, I think, it’s noticing when something is starting to happen. And noticing it and then building on it and saying “That’s new”, “That hasn’t happened before”, “What does it mean?”, “Where can I go with it?”

The master has spoken.

This week I’ve learned that…

• A blender is a god-sent device to make magical mixes out of about anything
• In order to get a startup off the ground you need to be committed and can’t just do it “on the side”
• I can’t control what other people do. Hence I won’t give too much thought into trying that anymore.
• When I need to sleep, I have to make time for it.
• Sleep refreshes the senses and clears out a lot of sub-conscious garbage.
• Sleep takes time.
• You can create a sort of virgin margarita/super lemonade at home with Lime juice, Raw honey and crushed Ice cubes
• Some say Glycerine is the secret sauce to creating big bubbles when it’s actually J-Lube
• Mate tea tastes great in the morning and will wake you up just like coffee
• You can get fit without a gym by just doing body-weight exercises
• It’s a a good idea to put all your supplements and allergy-medication into a small box instead of having the bottles float around everywhere
• Regular soap when used to wash wooden floors will dull the surface and it will look less clean than before
• It’s a good idea to start the week listening or watching inspirational videos from successful people
• Just because the USPS says it has delivered a package doesn’t necessarily mean it actually happened.
• Pre-made lunch-time Sushi from Japanese people is significantly tastier than from a random deli and doesn’t even have to be more expensive

Wednesday May 28, 3:09pm Kreuzberg, Berlin

Dear John,

It’s been a cold two days filled with rain and I’m sitting here at my friend Volker’s desk in Kreuzberg, Berlin to write this letter to you today.

I’ve got two very different topics I wanted to tell you more about and inspire you to think about.

Topic No.1Persons Of Inspiration

The first thing is a task I’ve given myself while re-reading “Psycho Cybernetics.”

This task is to make a list of people–living and dead–who represent the type of person that I want to aspire to be. In particular, for each personality trait and accomplishment, I am tasked to find a specific person and research their life. A big goal of this exercise is to find out that many of the people I deem successful were NOT (genetically, socially) pre-disposed to becoming who they became.

I’m excited about this and I think you would have a lot of fun with this exercise.

Here’s my current breakdown of people who I consider successful in each their own rights and for different reasons altogether and who have, as far as I can tell (No one is an angel!) exhibited the right moral behavior to get there.

1. Entrepreneurial Success

   • Richard Branson (Serial entrepreneur, socialite, fun person, genius)
   • Jeff Koons (Art-impresario, multi-millionaire, genius)
   • Steven Levitt (Genius, curious mind, Richard Feynman of our age)

2. Financial Success (Having created financial empires)

   • Warren Buffet

3. Creative Success (Having created empires from their imagination)

   • Jim Henson
   • Jeff Koons
   • Walt Disney
   • Brian Eno

4. Cultural Success (Having influenced culture as a whole and millions of individuals)

   • Stewart Brand
   • Buddha
   • Joseph Beuys

Note, for example, that Steve Jobs is not on any of the lists. It’s because he didn’t make it for the following reasons.

Surely he is on-par with the financial and entrepreneurial success of Warren Buffet and Richard Branson BUT I am not convinced of the moral soundness of his person. My criteria for my list of aspirational persons of interest include empathy (Did/does this person make the impression of being interested in the emotional well-being of others?), approachability (Did/does this person make the impression one could, given the right circumstances, have a great conversation with them?), relaxedness (How effortless does this person come across?) etc.

You should of course have your own list of criteria to filter these people by.

My next step with this list is to get to know those better that I only know vaguely right now.

For me that’ll be Warren Buffett and Walt Disney about who I barely know anything.

That’s my homework for the coming days.

• Who are/were they?
• What motivated them?
• What does their outlook on life look like?
• What can I learn from them?
• Are/were they happy with their success?
• How do/did they use their success and power for the greater good?
• What is their legacy?

Topic #2 Working Remote

The second topic today is the fact that I’ve been in Berlin, as you know, for the past 3 weeks and that I am part of the founding team of VA, as you know, which is based in New York.

The challenge for me this month has been to be physically and psychologically here (Berlin) while at the same time maintaining my connection abroad with Valerie, Adrian, Lily and Sandip.

Daily Standup Meeting

So far, I’ve been able to make almost every scheduled standup meeting with the VA  team by using Google Hangouts video and audio conferencing.

On a technical level…

Google Hangouts

The experience so far has been good and I would say that Google Hangouts is superior to using Skype, the quality is better and group-calls are easy to set up.

So, if you find yourself working from a different location than your team (different time-zone optional) definitely give Google Hangouts a spin.

With Google Hangouts I recommend to try

1. to join an ongoing call
2. to create a group-call yourself
3. to switch between video and audio
4. to experiment with headphones and built-in mic and speakers
5. to stand up while video-calling and adjust your laptop accordingly

Slack

Lily introduced Slack the day she joined the team and we have been using it everyday successfully.

I am mentioning Slack as part of Standup because we use it to sync up before the meeting every day. If someone can’t make it or will be late, Slack is our channel to let everyone know.

On a personal level…

I love regular check-ins. I think they’re absolutely crucial for team dynamics and morale.

But I also think really staying in touch without seeing each other in person is hard. If you look at the 80/20 rule, I suggest that doing remote stand ups with Google Hangout and Slack covers… 50% of what needs to be conveyed. BUT using these tools is still a 100% improvement over using only email.

Team communication, nay, communication in general is so important and so multi-faceted, that technology is merely a temporary substitute.

Could you stay productive and in-tune as a team for a month while everyone works from different places?

Yes, definitely.

Could you run an organization consistently with everyone being in different locations and only do in-person meetings once in a while.

No, definitely not.

–

So, that’s it for today! That’s my report of this transcontinental cybernetic communication experiment.

I hope you found an inspiration or two and please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!

Sincerely,

Alexis

PS: I found this article today on BLOOMBERG http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014–05–28/to-make-killing-on-wall-street-start-meditating.html and am now thinking of creating a list of efficient meditations. Any modalities (Increase focus, reduce stress, reduce anxieties, augment depression) that you would find interesting in particular?

Thought #1: “When do people buy things? When other people SELL things.”

Basically, unless you’re selling something people won’t buy it. It’s so obvious but when you’re like me then you just assume that–because your product is solid, and because you spent so much time thinking about it, and because, I mean, just look at it! It’s gorgeous. etc.–people will buy it with no need for persuasion.

I’m realizing this has been a fallacy in my thinking. Unless I “sell” what I have no one will feel the need to buy from me.

This can be…

…selling more consulting hours

…selling getting coffee with me

…selling a spot for a VC on VA

…selling a spot for a Startup on VA

Even myself! If I can persuade myself to do things then I can do the same with others. I am not sure if I’ve ever tried to sell to myself something BUT while reading Psycho Cybernetics I’m coming to the conclusion that selling/persuading is a huge part of transformation. And it’s a deliberate act. If I want to become successful then I should sell myself to that vision and buy into it and mobilize energy and resources to become successful.

This was prompted by the way, by a conversation I overheard of a startup that, after years of good growth has started to slow down in making money. The question the team raised was “How do we grow again?” without seeing the obvious answer: You’ve got an existing mailing list, so SELL THEM! – Also, sell them your story the way you sold it to them the first time. How you struggled learning X and how you overcame it and how it wasn’t that hard after all and how you succeeded. I think a variation of that will work and will work again.

Note to self: Must re-read ‘Advertising secrets of the written word.’

Thought #2: To Struggle In Life and Career IS A CHOICE

(came sometime yesterday) – I’ve been choosing to have difficulties with being successful. I think, subconsciously, I’ve been holding myself back for years, decades, based on the fact that the type of person that I am has to go through years of suffering and hardship and ONLY THEN would I be worthy the success that I secretly desire.

How effed-up is that? I’ve been actively sabotaging myself from “just being successful”. I realized it’s a choice I’m making and that the choice I’ve taken so far is a bad one.

Instead, I’ve decided that business success will from now on come easily to me. Why does everything have to be a struggle until, at the end, there is a moment of absolution? I’m tired of this and I’m tired of holding myself back.

This is going to be expanded but the key take away is that my self-image has, generally speaking, always included myself having a hard time with business things BY DEFAULT and that is what happens.

I can’t believe it’s that obvious.

I’m over struggling and luckily with VA I am seeing for the first time that business things can just click. I know we’re not yet making money but it’s by far the most successful piece of software I’ve created and I’m quiet proud of it, too!

For tomorrow I want to create a list of things that I’m proud of having achieved. It’s always a good idea to make such a list for boosting my self-esteem and confidence. Confidence is good, so is self-esteem and it’s good to document it just for myself as I have done before.

Alright, this is very stream-of-consciousness today but remember the two key take-aways:

1. People Won’t Buy Unless Someone Is Selling So, if I want to make more money, well, I have to start selling what I have and not assume and expect others to make that sale for me. How obvious!
2. Struggle In Life Is A Choice So, if I want to be successful, more than I already am, then I have to make it a choice to stop having to go through trials and trials and feel good about just doing it and having fun and success with it.

Good stuff.

More to come so stay tuned.

Ready, set, go! It’s been quiet a busy week and I’m ready, happy to just chill today. It’s Saturday, the summer is warm outside and I’m sitting here with the radio playing motown songs. As always, there is a cup of green tea waiting next to me. I’m currently reading a few books of which the one I bought most recently is right across from me on the table.

I thought today is a good review of the things that are on my mind:

1. Relaxation I’ve been working hard since last week on building out a completely new section of VA and this weekend I’m just chilling and not doing anymore work. I wrapped up my project, merged my development branch into staging and demo’ed my solution to Adrian.

The section I created is called “Business Metrics” and will allow us to survey and benchmark companies on any sort of metric such as Revenue, Marketing Costs, User Counts and, really, anything else we or our users come up with.

The system I built stays flexible because it allows us to add, edit and remove groups of metrics and the metrics themselves. If, for example, we decided tomorrow that we wanted to survey “Happiness” metrics, we would simply create a new metric group named “Happiness” and create metric types for that group such as “Customer Happiness” or “Employee Happiness.”

I feel proud of my achievement and believe that my contributions this week to VA are going to propel the value upwards.

1. Book #1: Alpha Male Tutorial

I decided to re-read the book I followed last year. I do like the little exercises he gives to boost self-esteem and improve ones self-image in relation to women. I don’t think I have a big problem with being Alpha but it’s good to remind myself of what makes a leader. I do listen to the self-hypnosis mp3 and my goal is to listen to it repeatedly over the coming weeks.

1. Book #2: The Ultimate Sales Letter

I want to brush up on my sales letter writing and brought with me a few books. My writing has suffered a bit this week but at least I dug into Dan Kennedy’s “The Ultimate Sales Letter” which, like the Boron Letters and Secrets of Advertising Copy helps write better long-form sales copy.

Writing sales letters is actually a bunch of fun and now that I’m writing again, I’m looking forward to writing more sales stuff again. I do like Kennedy’s style of writing because it’s very clear and methodical. I haven yet to implement his advice and hope that there will be some exercises to follow besides the general points he makes.

I still have and want to re-read Halbert’s letters.

1. Book #3: You Are Your Own Gym

This came about by luck. It’s a book that is all about how to use your own body to get fit without the need for any equipment at all. Just use what’s there and what’s around in any normal apartment. It’s a quintessential book in that I’m learning how to stay fit anywhere. I bought it yesterday and started reading today. I’ve decided to try out the exercises today and tomorrow but really start a 10 week program on Monday.

I’ve been meaning to get fit again but both, Gym and even Yoga are boring me.

1. Berlin in general

My trip is getting better. The first 10 days here were tough, I was annoyed about the lack of internet and I think I really missed Valerie, too. I felt like my flow that I have in New York was completely gone. I tried to give in to Berlin and relax but I still ran into resistances anywhere I turned.

Luckily, at least my work flowed, and in a way, that was my goal for my stay here. Have time and space and quietude to really get into my work and kill it.

I’m not as social as I intended to be but that usually happens when I’m here. To me, Berlin is a primarily solitary experience. It’s beautiful this time of the year and finally the rain stopped for most of the week and I get to spend time outside, too, and on the bike riding around town.

Well, I feel better that’s for sure. I’ve also started to eat healthier with less sugar, better carbs, more protein and much more greens.

Here’s to the rest of trip!

Sunday May 11, 7:58pm Freiligrath Strasse 10 Kreuzberg, Berlin Germany

Dear John,

It was so packed. Yesterday turned out to be a fun and full and very long day and I wanna tell you a bit about what happened, hoping you’ll get a feeling what a Saturday can be like in Berlin.

The key take-away today for you is: It’s been amazing and you would like it a lot.

Before noon, the remaining One Month team Mattan, Sydney and Lee landed and checked in to the apartment where Chris was already waiting. From what Chris told me they went straight to bed and slept for most of the day after a long night of traveling. I’m very excited for them to be here and I met them briefly when I went to see Chris to take a walk and explore his neighborhood.

Last year around this time I happened to stay in Berlin for 10 days and an old friend of mine, Kris Merken, showed me around the area where Chris and his team now live. I vaguely remembered this one small and very nice coffee shop that sat on a little plaza only a block away from Tempelhof airport-runways-turned-public-park.

We found the little place (whose name escapes me, “Edels”?, “Edile”? something french I believe), sat down, ordered coffee, tea and two excellent slices of “Kuchen” (German for cake, Chris got a pecan pie, I got this delicious red-currant whipped cream sandwich pie thing. Both excellent.)

This little coffee shop represents very well what I call a typical Berlin experience. It’s running well, has lots of customers, has good food, good drinks, looks a little run-down (they all do) and charms you with its imperfections.

Chris and I had a good conversation and waited the passing rain showers to end to continue our little journey.

We stood at the brim to the former runway of Tempelhof airport only a minute later and we took a nice walk around the area which, for a Saturday, wasn’t very populated. I assume the on-and-off rain showers kept people staying inside.

If you can take one thing with you from Tempelhof, it’s the air. In fact, the air quality in Berlin is phenomenal and it is especially fresh when you’re standing in a mile-wide open space. It felt like standing close to the ocean.

Once I got back home, our mutual friend Tobi invited us to join him to go to a party he and his friends “had waited weeks to happen.” We got our tickets online and I slept a few more hours knowing that parties in Germany begin late, usually around 1pm or even later.

After a quick shower around 11:30 we was off to the races!

The Party

Man, I had forgotten how these things exist. This wasn’t just some little club in the East Village with a few people inside and some waiting to get in. This was a full-blown rave in the back of a former factory of sorts drawing hundreds of Berliners and travelers to form long lines to get in.

Luckily we got tickets hours before online so Mattan, Chris, Sydney, Lee and I were able to go directly to a very short queue and got in within 30 minutes or less.

The check-in personnel (three women, the security guard and their guest list) were so friendly! I couldn’t believe how we were greeted with a smile and how understanding they were. I surprised me because that situation is high-pressure, intense and people do get upset. Especially since it had just started pouring rain again, too.

Getting in didn’t pose a problem for our little travelers’ group and the positive vibes I got from those three people during check-in colored my night with a smile.

Since I’m not going to give you a boring run-down of what happened step-by-step of the evening (I frankly don’t remember a linear story either), I wanted to share with you a few observations that Chris, Mattan, Sydney and Lee and I shared throughout the night.

1. People come to dance and are serious about their dancing.
2. A party like this with ~2,000 people is not a place to meet someone (See #1)
3. People travel and stay in circles of 5. That’s where all the dating and sex seems to happen.
4. Besides Vodka there isn’t a huge selection of hard liquors. We mostly drank Beer, Club Mate (a yerba-mate tea soft drink) and one or two shots of Vodka mixed in.
5. Every second overheard conversation was in English.
6. There are a lot beautiful women in Berlin. However, they’re usually not dressed up and usually do not even wear make-up. “Poor but sexy”

9:45am, May 10, 2014 Lilienthaler Strasse 10 Berlin, Germany

Dear John,

The days in Berlin are already flying by fast. I think you would very much like this place. Berlin excites and entices especially in May and June, the most beautiful time of the year to spend in Germany. I wish you could be here right now, and smell the fresh morning air. The trees and flowers are all blooming and fill the air with musky, earthy aroma. Nature is moving with the sunbeams, birds sing and show themselves, looking and singing for a mate to make more birdies with.

It really is a spectacle and because today is Saturday, the city is only slowly waking up and shedding Friday nights’ sleep from its hair.

I am sitting here with my mom solving crossword puzzles across the room. I am glad to see her although I know she is suffering and in pain most of the nights. During the day she can endure the pain by taking medicine–which is laid out neatly on the table in front of me–but the comfort leaves her when she sleeps so she has to wake up to the pangs that stem from her lower back. I feel for her and yet can not do anything besides being here for these remaining 28 days.

Given these circumstances, she sports very good spirits though. She always has been a bright and smiling person and even in her dire times such as now, she doesn’t complain too much. Members of our family can usually see the bright side of things when others would succumb to negative thoughts. My father has a positive outlook, too. So do I.

What else? Well, for one thing my dear friend Chris arrived from New York yesterday morning and my father and I picked him up from the airport and drove him to his rental apartment that he’ll be sharing with his co-founder and 2 of his colleagues from work. He had never been to Berlin before (although he did study for a year in Amsterdam) and it looks like he had a good first impression of the city.

It really is nice right now.

Since both of us are transplants we took a walk and explored his neighborhood first and then, later in the afternoon, walked further and sat down for very good Pizza close to the local canal next to Graefen Strasse. The place was bursting with young people of all sorts and the food and the beer and the dessert tasted delicious. On top of that, my dear friend Irmina showed up out of nowhere with her two sweet kids and we got to say hi and introduce her to Chris.

Afterwards we went and got another beer around the corner at a place called “Fuchsbau” which was very, very cool and I recommend it highly.

People still smoke in bars! The craziest thing, really, coming from New York where even “vaping” is now banned from the streets. And here, in Berlin, people don’t give a damn and instead enjoy their beer and their smoke and their company. It worked. The combination of scents just worked and I feel like I had forgotten that world. It’s cerebral. It’s good.

Today, Chris’ team arrived, I just texted with him. They’re already out and about taking in their new environment, walking around Neukoelln.

Funny incident yesterday: I hadn’t had coffee in a few weeks and for no good reason other than indulgence, ordered an espresso for Chris and I each after dinner. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious; However, once I went to bed to sleep I got exactly 2 hours of sleep and stayed awake and conscious for the remaining 5 hours! Basically I did not sleep tonight and knowing myself expect to crash mid-afternoon. Well, and you know what? That’s fine. It’s Saturday, it’s Berlin, it’s chill. I’m not going to stress myself out. The past months in New York were packed with new experiences and while I am looking forward to banging out some really awesome new features this month, I am also in progress of relaxing and living a bit off-computer and off-business.

Finally, I just bought a big bouquet of peonies for my mom for mothers day. I bought them still tucked in and expect them to blow up over night to fully show off their currently hidden beauty. I bought one bundle of reds, one with pinks and one with whites. The white ones should give a very nice smell the vendor said.

I can’t wait.