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Have you ever wanted to create a startup business that would explode? Do you want to innovate and be ahead of the crowd? Have you ever been told that your attempt is impossible and have an urge to do it? To many are held back by their association and societies limited thinking. We all have greatest hosted within us, so why do so many die but never truly live? Why do so many get to the end of their life with untapped potential and how can we reach in and persist to do something great for our lives, families and world? In todays show Eric goes deep and shares his story and belief on reaching your full potential and persisting through life's trials.
- How To Create Something Out of Nothing
- How To Constantly Innovate
- How To Turn A Small Dream Into A Huge Reality
Eric Pulier is a American Entrepreneur, technologist, published author, public speaker and philanthropist. He's the founder of over 15 companies and sold his latest for $350 million. He's the co-author of understanding Enterprise SOA and recognized for his innovation and successful entrepreneurship in enterprise technology. He can turn your small idea into a fully-fledged, startup with millions in capital. He's raised hundreds of million of dollars for ventures and owns a beautiful restaurant in Santa Monica, California attached to his nightclub. He's changing the world one innovative idea at a time.
Thoughts From The Episode:
Making a contribution to society gives purpose, peace and joy.
All true successes come from our investment into our purpose.
Persistence is the key to making anything successful.
Depression takes the same energy as happiness its just misguided.
Insanity is sanity for some.
Surrounding yourself with people better, smarter and more driven is a key benefit.
Believing in your self is the start of building your dreams.
Change is coming fast and its not scary its a challenge to change ourselves.
When everyone says "its impossible," your on to something.
Innovation is within us all. Its a choice to reinvent the way we experience the world.
Get Connected To Our GuestEricpulier.com
1/16/17 UPDATE: Check out Eric Pulier's latest write up in Engadget!
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Episode Transcript
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DB (Daniel Budzinski): Welcome to the DreamCast Podcast. Where you start the journey to make your dream reality. Become the greatest version of yourself, and discover your purpose. My name is Daniel Budzinski and I'm excited to bring you today's show. Every week the DreamCast will bring you practical tips, steps, and interviews from influential leaders, successful entrepreneurs and business professionals with outer dreams from around the globe.
Our guests have discovered their purpose and are constantly making investments into their greatest asset, themselves. I believe your dreams are priceless and if you're looking to make an investment in yourself and don't know where to begin let's start the journey today by joining me at DanielBudzinski.com.
Thanks for tuning in now, let's get started.
If you're joining with me today, welcome! No matter what you do or where you listening in from, you come to the right place. This show is for anyone who has a passion to discover their purpose in live a life of significance.
Whether you're a CEO, a president, a stay-at-home mom or a young entrepreneur, the DreamCast Podcast is dedicated to helping you find purpose in everyday life. Thanks for listening on in this episode, we'll be talking about how to create something out of nothing, how to constantly innovate and how to turn your small dream into a huge reality. So, buckle up as I introduce today's guest.
DB: Today's guest started programming computers in the fourth grade, but in high school he started a database computer company to that attend Harvard University and graduated in 1988 as magna cum laude. He is now American entrepreneur, technologist, publish author, public speaker, philanthropist and founder of over 15 companies. He is based in Los Angeles, California with his incredible four children.
Our guest today is the co-author of Understanding Enterprise SOA, and has earned recognition as an innovative leader in one of the most successful entrepreneurs in enterprise technology in government world.
He is commonly known as the man who can turn your small idea into a fully-pledged venture back start-up with millions in capital. He's raise hundreds of millions of dollars for his ventures he's founded or co-founded. Some of the ventures include
Digital Evolution, US interactive, Media Platform, Acana, Desktone, Service Mash and many others. He sold his latest company since last year for around 350 million dollars. He has a beautiful restaurant right off the beach in Sta. Monica attached to his very own night club. He has been mentioned in almost every news station in America when he built and ran the bridge to the 21st century for Bill Clinton – Al Gore to commemorate their second inauguration. It included thousands of people, hundreds members of Congress, Senates and US Supreme Court. He is a brilliant and innovative leader here to challenge the status quo. Eric Pulier, welcome to the DreamCast.
EP (Eric Pulier): Thanks Daniel, you can now add king of intros to your resume.
EP: Thank you for having me, I'm honored to be asked to be here.
DB: Well, so great. I love the intro because it's kind of my moment to super brag on you and say the things that you probably never say about yourself. But, no, I'm really excited to have you in the show, when we meet together, it was probably the most life-changing moments in the sense that, it's just really a powerful launching part for me, and I believe that as many accomplished individuals, you don't have necessary the time to sit down with hundreds of different people for an hour but, that's the purpose and heart of the DreamCast.
So, to start of I love for you to share some context about your life just family, where you're living and little bit of your story, Eric.
EP: Okay. Thanks, Daniel. My story is probably not what it appears because a good portion of my time and literally the majority is spent not on many of the types of things that you recounted but, it really much more directly related to my actual life which is focused on my kids, and my friends and my family. And reading, and exploring life and trying to be inspired and to give something into the world that maybe would have been here if I had been born. So, In addition to those things, I'm also trying to come together with people smarter than me and maybe build companies on a regular basis coz that's what I enjoy and I find a lot of excitement in doing that on building things. But, If you really look at my life, a lot of it is spent at doing homework or grappling with challenges with one kid or another. I have four but, I'm co-raising with my former wife which is you know, both rewarding, challenging and certainly time-consuming.
DB: Right, four children. So, I just had my second baby girl. She's a month old and it's so crazy. I don't really remember life without kids. You know…I don't remember what it looks like.
EP: I'm with you on that.
DB: So, what your childhood look like? Like you said, I think a lot of people listening in, they don't realize that most of your contribution that any successes you had was really came to this place of purpose, dreams and destiny. And, that's why I really believe you'd be the homerun for this show, because it was of this things you been known into have this great titles, but to really make a contribution to society that would make an impact and help people. And so, what a childhood look like for you, a lot of times people think that it is a wealthy family background with big ideas and big dreams. Want to share a little bit of that for us.
EP: Yeah, I wouldn't say it was like that at all. I certainly cannot complain compared to most people in terms of how we live. We didn't want for anything, we weren't wealthy by any standard of luck but, we had money enough to be comfortable and live a very nice life. I went to public school. I really admired people who had come out the beaten path. For a number of reasons, I think I come from history of entrepreneurs. On both sides of my family…actually, my grandfather really kind of argue why he went to law school without going to graduating college I believe. He was selling things on the street to make money very early in his life and really was extremely resourceful. And my grandfather on the other side came from Russia and he was able to build the company and around leather working and women's handbags. And it is really impressive to me how people could in essence, find their way through ingenuity and building relationships and making something out of nothing as you put it.
I was always inspired by that. But, you know I also came from a background of seeing importance of social activism. My grandfather actually run for congress under the socialist ticket and he I'm not of that far left persuasion. I very much weight in those ideals and feel that kind of tug to give something back to look at people who have in born into circumstances less fortunate and feel it's something we're dealing somehow contributing to making the world different and not just different but better, rather than simply turning the status quo or making money. I have always admired both of those qualities in people. And I think it did come from early life.
DB: That's so great, great to hear thanks for sharing that. You know you've graduated from Harvard magna cum laude which is a huge accomplishment. I'm really interested in your opinion personally. Just on your ideas right now on college, whether or not you even feel like possibly needed that degree to do what you're doing today. Just a little bit of that story and background.
EP: Oh Sure. Well, I don't think so, I mean, it doesn't matter very much where you go to college. There are so many great colleges that you can get an education from. I think primarily, the stuff of college comes from reading and interacting with interesting people. I mean, one benefit I have to say, I did enjoy from Harvard is keeping in touch with people from here or there varied from various walks of life. Certainly have a level of ambition and I guess ingenuity that I've learned from. So, maybe it's the peer thing or learning from others in your own age group that probably benefited the most but, I'm not a huge believer that the degree is that important. Certainly, the people that I hired on this thing, a thousand over the years, where they went to school was not one of the considerations that I took into account.
DB: Right. Isn't that so interesting how that's the sale point as far as, is change I feel like in the last few years. I mean, I graduated my Accounting degree, I was though… It did help me you know, problem solve and really learn how to grind really for a task or but at the end of day I don't remember a lot of what I learned. It was more the principles that's kinda brought me, like you said, the association to be around really with great minds and thinkers and brilliant people that wanted to change the world, per se.
EP: Yeah. I think it's the ability to be inspired by others that you gain from hanging out with people smarter than you, interested in different subjects varied in their disciplines and also time management and the ability to get through difficult tasks, right?
And obviously, at more regular school, you do get assigned more things than you can possibly do until how do you handle that psychologically and there is a certain benefit I think to people that gone through that. But, generally, I think as much more important is your ability to be inspired and your work ethic.
DB: Yeah! So Eric I'm really intrigue to hear your wisdom in turning nothing into something. This is my way to say entrepreneurship, right? Many listening they have an idea, they have a dream, they have a passion in life but they haven't done anything because they really, genuinely don't know where to start. And so, how would you, what would you give an advice to turning nothing into something. The first step, the steps before, what would you say?
EP: Well, I think there's a couple of thing. The first thing is to not necessarily put entrepreneurs into separate category than yourself. A lot of people look at entrepreneur a bit of maybe, a bit of fear. What makes somebody want to go after something so on unlikely and so challenging, and take these types of risk and then you look at yourself, and you say maybe I'm not, I don't have this in me or this is not the kind of person that I am. I don't believe that. I think that people inherently have this ability to envision the future that's almost native to how our brains evolve. And you can look ahead and see things that are not necessarily really it but could be, then you can convince yourself how that's going to look. And what it's going to be?
I think, the way that traditional people think who are, maybe, daunted by that kind of process is they see the complexity first, right? And what they see is, a sea of what could go wrong, why things might not work, who might get in the way, who might also doing it, what are the pitfalls? And, in that calculation, anybody would be daunted and not prone to moving forward. But, if you actually reverse that and go to the end of the maze, you can look away backwards much simpler. Start with ultimate simplicity, and then act complexity only where necessary.
I remember as kid, I used to sit in this restaurant where they gave you a maze then you'll try to figure out while waiting for your food. It's always interesting to me how people start at the beginning find their way maybe, after hitting a few dead ends and ultimately get there. But, a hundred percent of the time if your start at the end you can just work your way right back. There is a solution, it is right there, you never have a problem. And it's very similar with these types of things.
If you look ahead in 5 years, the world is gonna be completely different. You can't even imagine with the exponential curve of technology, how fast things change. The kind of barriers that you might see today falling away. So, what's really possible with this type of things is first, is to convince yourself of what or why the world needs this, why you want to see it in the world, why this is necessary? Because obviously, anything you take on is a significant portion of your time remaining alive, it has to be something that matters to you.
DB: that's good.
EP: You know, if it does matters to you, and it should be in the world then you absolutely can make it that. But, the first thing is to convince yourself, it's not about selling other people. If you convince yourself and you're really mean believe this and you see why this is going to be something, then it's just a matter of fulfilling that prophecy. It's not really, it's almost like doing the things necessary to create what is inevitable. You're not, there is no option, and it's not going to work, it's just what are the steps you going to make to get it there when you hit obstacles and inevitable challenges and near death experiences. Those are terrible, there's no way to sugarcoat that. This needs a strong stomach and the same time you know it's a bumping road, it's not the end of the game. And the people that build this things have persistence as a primary quality more than any other quality.
DB: That's so good. It's almost like you made up your mind if you haven't done it already then maybe, if you're listening you haven't made up your mind yet. That you believe, do you believe that this idea is a part of your DNA. That without you living and breathing and doing this thing that life won't be the same.
And I agree with you, it's almost like when the cost of not doing it out-weighs the cost of just existing and living. And you just like if something rises up on the inside because you're absolutely right. Hell is going to come against you, storms are gonna rage, but there's something about I mean, the trials, the hardships they really actually, sometimes make me more invested into the project, right? More invested into the dream.
So man, what good advice. I'd love what you said starting at the end. I think you're right if we can have the ended mind we can, we can break this things down in manageable increments to make it real. And so, that's kinda plays into my next question with you is, you, do think like no one else, Eric. I mean, I just want you to know that like as you're saying this as a kid I was started at the beginning of those puzzles. I never thought to start at the end, but you take this simple ideas and you really do, you innovate them it's really your brilliance in your mind. It's, that's why I'm so thankful you're doing what you're doing because you are adding so much value back to the world even by just putting this wisdom out there in this podcast.
You take this big ideas, you break them down into this small increments and you make this company as real possible. So, it's not so much how did you learn, how to innovate like that because it's first nature to you but for someone that wants to begin to challenge themselves, what are somethings that they can develop themselves into thinking differently.
EP: Well, I think that there is a tendency for society to not want you to, in general right?
DB: Right.
EP: It runs on the basis of maintaining what appears to be status quo. People don't see just how fast things are changing. It's really quite remarkable, the human brain has evolved in such a manner as to really be on linear curve in terms of our physicality of our brain expanding, our power, our bodies work and when we look at the world around us with any perspective its moving at the different rate, its moving on exponential curve and in that gap there is a perception a misalignment you stay of what appears to be a safe mode and doing what you are supposed to do and you wake up and nothing makes sense because the world change around you.
So, I think that what people really needs to do is kind of change their definition of what's crazy. Is it crazy to step back? And really see how fast things are changing and then try to be part of that and to exist within excitement of taking hold of these various things and be part of crafting a new world which is inevitable whether we want to be a part of it or not. Or, is it crazy to sit here along with the linear curve and watch the world speeds pass us and be doing things that are completely irrelevant almost as soon as we learned them. So, the craziness of learning something very specific, doing that thing over and over again in the same way that it was taught to us by the people who learned it from the people who learned it, etc. is really, I think a little bit more crazy.
DB: That such a whole way to say. I mean, it's like still travelling in the Post Reserve. They are still using horses instead of airplanes. That would be crazy. They'd be like why are you still using horses to deliver postage mail, right? I mean that is a lot more crazy….
EP: It is. And when you see the power of what a single individual can do and you recognize what you have inside you. And it's even more crazy to become a cog on that machine because all it does is come up the works.
If you look at the biggest companies in the world and their capacity for innovation, it's directly inversely proportional to how many people do I have. How much revenue they have? How much reach they have? They stopped. They become a kinda crybaby and you want to jump in that and stick your feet and your leg into that and wrestle in that mode.
That's fine but, don't expect…don't expect to be highly relevant to *** in you. If you look inside yourself and you see your capacity to create new relationships, to laugh, to find humor, to re-think you're instantly and almost daily coming up with new ideas and looking at things differently you're just not recognizing it as something you can grab and hold off and express that into that individuality in something that can become lasting and real.
I think everybody has that inside of them and it gets beaten out of them because of fear and maybe lack of perspective. But, I think a lot more people are recognizing that they have that capacity although, there are something interesting about exploring them.
DB: Yeah. It's like a mentality of abundance or the mentality of lack, right? And you know, I think when I look at it, you as a leader, I wonder, okay so, who's led Eric because you don't get to this place without attaching yourself like you said the great minds that help you think greater. I think a lot of people they have wondered to people that have help them go to the next level.
Do you have any influential leaders that would help you indirectly or directly whether you know them or you read their book that have helped you gonna think this way?
EP: So many people. I mean, I'm the least obviously successful in innovative of the people that I admired and worship in some ways. I mean, from my father who is a true renaissance man, computer scientist, musician, author, doctor…
DB: No way…
EP: And you know really showed me the capacity to really think about any subjects and add something in yourself to it. Even if you're wrong, even if you're off base, that's not a failure. A failure is not trying, a failure is not putting yourself out there and adding something to the world and he… he certainly showed that and the same thing with so many authors in people. I mean, even now, one of the people that I look to for this type of inspiration is Peter del Montes who has founded the XPrice and co-founded Singularity University, and his truly the.. He's got a lot of inspiration himself but, from my view one of the people who really pioneered this idea, abundance and how technology an exponential growth can change the essence of what it means to be human and inspire us to not see limits.
DB: So cool.
EP: It's really is something amazing, and if you find guys like Earl Wilson who just, you know completely change at least, my view of what it means to be human and how we fit in into the larger ecosystem of nature. So, you start to read this various things and see these people. And I think that passion to be alive and to make something into explore of what it means to be here. You know it rubs off from all of us and maybe in more mundane ways for guys like me who maybe haven't created that huge thing yet or but certainly, we can all be proud for creating whatever we can that might last longer than us.
DB: Yeah. Well, I think you just (say) super important for everyone listening. It's not that everyone's destiny to create some massive you know, enterprise corporation that sells for a hundred million dollars that's not. That's Eric's dream, that's Eric's passion.
I think the whole purpose of the dream on what you really articulated to that there is something in the inside in all of us. The whole purpose of the DreamCast is to help people make their dream a reality because, everyone has a dream. You don't lie to yourself and say no, I don't have a dream. That's you telling someone else's lie right now because you have a dream, you have a passion, you're put here on purpose. And I love what you are talking about because it really is tapping into the power that's within us to create something that's going to make a difference for those around us.
You know, one of my favorite thing s is travelling internationally, Eric. I'd love going internationally bringing teams, and bringing fathers with you know sons and daughters and obviously wives with sons and daughters. And you know when you experience a different world, a different culture, you realize how blessed we are, how thankful you can be about life, but then you realize, what, there's like this social responsibility on me to help…
EP: Yes
DB: and you know this is (right) in line with everything that I have as a core value of my life… That's brought me peace, that's brought me patience, that's brought me purpose, that's made me thankful, you know.
EP: Yeah. There is, there really is a social responsibility to give back and it's I think it's a little bit different than it might even appear where it appears to be something maybe selfless or something you have to deal because it's a good thing to do for the world but, in fact, it's probably the most selfless thing you can do…is to give back, right?
DB: Right.
EP: You know, they say it's better to give than receive. But it's really built right into our biology that we feel better, we are better when we are we're giving something back that changes our level of importance. What it means for us to feel connected to the world and how we feel that almost our place and so…
DB: I never thought of that…that's paradoxical…actually..
EP: I try to put aside something of my companies that I hope that can be put forward to technologies that can somehow contribute to non-profit causes but, I don't do that necessarily just because, I do it because personally it feels like, it gives me more substance in terms of how I perceive myself, and why I'm doing things and it helps me do other things which maybe are more selfish you know.
DB: (laughs)
EP: I can't see wrong with making money, but if you spend all of your time, and all of your energy literally trying to do that and the end result to that maybe increase the efficiency of some companies some of that you don't see any correlation between your effort and including the lives of others somehow, then you're not going to feel complete. You're not gonna have that sense of importance that you deserve. Certainly, I don't, and I think all of us have that in us and as a necessary piece of what it means to be human and so selfish act we ought to make that part of how we live.
DB: I agree with you Eric. You know, I know personally you do a lot of work with non-profits and you have many avenues in ways of giving back. Can you talk of a little bit about a few with these and what these include as organizations?
EP: So, it's an important question. I've applied myself to various film profit and projects for decades. But, I've long been torn as to the best way this structure this activities because giving money to a cause or volunteering, it's admirable and I knew that. But, my aspiration as always been to somehow make something more lasting or personal.
If you give money into something it's somehow it can sometimes feel like a black hole that you're contributing and you might feel like it's better not doing that. You don't really know if you are making an impact that you might or work something personal that you can bring to the world as really being expressed. So, my life was spent working with people significantly smarter than me and bringing them across a number of different types of endeavors and these are people from all walks of life that ended up being employees or customers, or partners.
In a less, considering you find this sparks of life and it's amazing insights and then I've always wonder like how can we bring this together to apply what we've learned and the kind of innovation that we brought to commercial sector, the business sector and bring that more to the non-profit sector and the humanity's grand challenges.
We convince ourselves that the work we're doing day to day has an impact in important ways and to some degree it does maybe more for some of others. But, certainly when you build things that had a wide applicability you can point to your influence in healthcare, government, education… But, in reality, that's kinda rationalization, the real goal of business is not to make money, the real goal of business is to please your customer and its somehow make the corporation more efficient or to grow it five percent faster…That's lucrative, but it's not really beneficial directly in the way that we like to believe.
Sometimes, they struggle to draw back continuous connection from the work to the benefits. And so, what I've tried to do is to say how we step away from a job and maybe still applied what we've learned and then apply our unique capability to bring something to the world, to something more directly…directly to humanity's grand challenges.
And so that's what I've tried to do…a little bit more as I've gotten older. Let's say, I'll contribute to this *** thing. The main contribution I'm trying to do is can I bring people together around what we work with in the past and applied that into something what we really know and understand and can make a real difference in the world because of that.
DB: Yeah. Kind of gathering of great minds and hosting them to make a difference like you said in a humanitarian world. Talk about, talk a little about the organization that you've actually organized and founded.
EP: Sure. There's been a few over the years that I bring honor to be part of or some like contributed to. I've worked on projects ranging from wiring up children's hospital to allow kids to communicate that maybe have chronic illness and aren't into chore errand otherwise able to socialize. And, those who've been contribution to existing organizations in that case Starbright work. And quite few others were somehow found our ways in a position where we could help which happened in recent years.
I had co-founded an organization in business side called Enterprise (Five) Leadership Council. And, that was an effort to bring together leading innovators, technologists across enterprise sector to collaborate and basically, undermined existing work or I mean, we identify the re-trench the interest in the tech world that were perpetuating a self-serving model that was really holding back business. It was, it had no benefit anybody even the people that where seemingly benefiting from it.
It was really a loaded software, horrific prices for tech or for old hardware and technology that really was being surpassed fast by open-source world and by really consumerization trends. So, the easy else we did was break that model and imagine what would be like if we change the entire model around computer for large companies. And so in doing that we were quite successful a lot of companies applied those sense and save hundreds of millions of dollars per year but, we step back and say, w-wait a minute what if the same entrench interests or the same kind of systems and technologies that are holding back our ability to advance more directly and the things that are keeping developing nations from actually becoming solvent or helping their people become healthy or educated.
What if these various organizations that we admired and trust and give money to are essentially grappling with the same software and hardware problems and that are being held back by the same interest? So, we turn our attention and said okay, let's recreate this notion. It's not exactly the same but, the notion is…and apply it to the non-profit world. In other words, what if we able to step back, and apply the same technology approaches and modified for this purpose and bring these platforms to the non-profit world and we can apply the same passion, time, money and energy that we were doing to making this global bank 10 percent more efficient just solving some of the important things that matter in the world, right?
And that's where this foundation came about. I put aside some money in my companies for non-profit organizations and you know, I think they've been able to do some amazing work. There's been ups and downs like with any startup venture getting off the ground, finding the right models, making sure that the right people are doing the right things to make it happen. Clearly it's not easy but, when you look at the enormous amount of learning, energy and time, technologies that has been bought for the purposes, it's almost criminal not to apply it for the things we know we can, right? And maybe leave legacy that is even more impactful than the more extract (affects) that you have by working on the corporate world.
DB: No. It's really well said, you know, I think about when you're talking about that even something like Sales Force you know, for a long time they are one of the biggest CRM systems. They shifted gears and started donating their entire platform to non-profits and like what you are talking about open source, but doing an open source for higher level technologies, right? And it's do good and its giving capabilities for thousands of non-profit to maximize the dollar being used to change lives. I mean, it's incredible. Can you elaborate a little bit on how this you came about to, and where it came from and time-wise as well?
EP: You know, it's funny that you should mention Sales Force. I was actually inspired by Marc Benioff. He is somebody I have watched from a far for many years. He ended up being an investor in one of my companies that sold on 2013 called Desktone. And Just watching how right from the start he was smart out to recognize that none only would have been important of his own life mission, but for the people that he surrounded himself within and his employees etcetera.
To know that they were working towards something larger than themselves and he actually puts aside some of his spoil of his success, of the company's success to go to know directly the things that people could feel, touch, smell and you know understand where would matter to the world. And in doing that I recognize that really should be a fundamental for us when you bring something in.
Today, I do do that. I have a percentage of the company's at least I can control to put aside for trying to you know subsequently bring people together around building a non-profit capabilities or whether its donating or actually applying the technology that we (earn) how to build for this purposes.
So, one of those was last time I fired up that actually, one of the first times I tried to do that was way back in the first tech crash. And, I was disappointed that I was actually distracted back to try to you know going build and didn't get to fulfill that.
In recent times, there's been a foundation called the Ace Foundation that's grown out of that notion. And what we're finding is that while it was like any organization that you start with growing pains to find its footing. Ultimately, if you have a mission that everyone believes in and the same kind of persistence and passion that goes into building anything can be applied to that, it's even more rewarding when you can see the very real results that starts to affect people's lives and you start getting feedback that you're not just I don't know advancing a technology or advancing goals against the business plans, you're actually affecting how people live and how their kids gonna live in and to some degree that changes how we think about ourselves.
So for me, it helps me feel better about the companies we build and I haven't spent as much time as I would like and I hope as I got older I'll be dividing my time maybe in different percentage on that foundation but I'm very proud of the people who have devoted themselves to that and built something very important.
So, the Ace Foundation which is now called the CoreTech Foundation was born out of that idea. I've always wanted to apply what I've I learned from the areas of my personal expertise, but just as much the network of amazing people that come together to do this ground-breaking things in business and see if we can make an impact of similar nature in areas that may have a long standing of affect on humanities challenges and if we can see a clear path to technologies in the work that we do making an impact like that I think It also become highly motivated to the work we deal on day to day in our (core) profit companies.
So, in essence I couldn't be more proud of the people who have rally to that cause and hopefully there were time I'll be able to spend more time on it as well. But, I applaud of what they are doing and I hope more, more intellectual property and activity will happen around the CoreTech Foundation over time and you know, God willing, it could have a larger impact (overtime) everything else I've ever done and that is something that I like to see.
DB: Oh, you know, you said something when we were together that impact in me…that kinda branded me and made me laugh at the same time, you say, if anyone tells you that something is not possible then you're on to something.
EP: That's exactly right.
DB: So, talk about that for a moment because I do believe it's very true and I also believe it kinda plays over (conversational) you know as society we're not told (necessarily) that's your idea. That huh, I'm on to something here.
EP: Right. I think that's really almost wanna be of primary way you can really be successful is you can look out in a year or two and you can come up of something interesting, but almost for sure if it's within the realm of possibility. If somebody equally smarter or some team or some part of some company has identified that on their roadmap as allocated a certain amount of money to researching it and testing it out and trying it, and it gonna makes your life completely miserable. Coz it's either you're going to be out sufficiently ahead actually have something in which case, they'll see that potential and they'll simply stop the market by declaring they have it too long enough till you die which is a common constructive of the existing world order.
Or, they've already been doing it in which case you are spinning your wheels. And so, the real opportunities to put on something that you believe that you can see that truly makes sense but maybe, is just on the edge of science fictions sufficiently where people say that's nut, that can't be done, no one would buy that, why would we do that like that's not possible, in which case, you say, Oh! I got enough people saying that then I'm gonna go for this.
DB: (laughs)
EP: it's something I can do.
DB: Right! We're here because someone says it was impossible to come to the new world, right? And someone's got on the ship and said well, we'll try that out.
EP: That's right. There's very few things that are actually not possible so, it's just a question of making sure you believe it.
DB: Right. I'd love that. You know, the world is changing, right? I mean, when My Space came out I remember it was like No! I'm not gonna get that you know My Space account and then everyone had My Space account. Then Facebook…no, I'm not gonna get… it's like, there's like Social stream, new social stream every week, there's like… And it's just interesting how often it's changing the way we interact to business.
How you know, Snapchat is my new way of texting people. Like if you have a hard texting me then you should snapchat me, right? It's like everything is changing so fast and I would love to hear this is obviously creating a lot of challenges and what is the world look like? How are we interacting with each other in the next 5 to 10 years? And how's the world gonna change? I mean, I'd love to hear your share on that.
EP: Well, I think it's gonna change faster in the next 5 and 10 years than it has in the last hundreds.
DB: Wow!
EP: Which is an astounding statement. But, I think it's absolutely true. I mean, it was only…think about what's changes in the last say 200 years it was hardly any people. Probably it was like 300 million people in the world. Now its 8 billion plus and most of them happen just in…since industrial revolution, you know.
BD: It's astounding.
EP: We're able to make food out of pastry paste. We're able to cure diseases and advance science and advance production. Suddenly, you know, everything is changes at astounding phase. Well, that rate of change is changing.
As you look into the work people like Peter de Montes and others who postulate like Rick Kirks law on exponential curve, you see that it's not the things are changing but rate of change is changing. To me, that's astounding.
So, looking ahead, we won't recognize this world as being very similar. I think our biology would be somewhat similar but even that would be altered as we merge closer and closer with the machines that we create you know, the many of us becoming more and more part of how we live the artificial limbs, our ability to edit genes, to change the nature of…
DB: I know you're blowing minds right now. And it's gonna be like…
EP: These are not, these are not science fiction concepts. These are real things that are happening faster than people understand but, for long, there will be a common place…
DB: Like the movie of Will Smith, the "I, Robot" or what is it again?
EP: Well, as you start into robotics and artificial intelligence there's a lot of debate where it goes…I happened to be a believer that long before we have to worry about such a beast …if you will…artificial beast, we'll actually be augmenting what it means to be smart. We are augmenting our own intelligent with these AIs and to make our lives better.
Yeah. If you tend to believe that being smarter is better, I think Erich Smith from Google will put out this kind of comment that if you kind of agree among ourselves that making humanity is smarter is better and there's all sort of counter argument as to why what might not be. Then, you can start of very being positive about the effect of AI and have these doomsday scenario so much. But, certainly, AIs have profound implication to how we live, work, breathe and to relate it will be our constant companion to…
DB: Or even right now…it's taken over our jobs, right? From people working on the stamp mail to artificial intelligence creating computers, and programs and machines that do all the stamping, do all the programming, right? I mean…it's…
EP: Sure. Sure lot of jobs will be replaced by the machines but a lot of new jobs will open up and of course a lot of new experiences will open up as we are able to may be work a little bit less and use more of our times to do more productive things, then maybe load task in such things that we can put on to the plate of the machines.
Similarly, you bring up the idea of kind of communication on how is that gonna change. Well, there's nothing more important to our view being human or what it means to be happy or feeling burden than getting back to others and communicating to others to connecting. And the nature on how we connect and speed which we are connecting the bandwidth we used that's all changing as virtual reality becomes more, let's say, more mature and augmented reality right behind it, we're going to find the ability to sensually be sitting in front of somebody and having a kind of true conversation, true intimate special expressions eyes everything that you might expect from really feeling that you are there and yet that person might be in the other side of the world.
We don't have that capability today, right? We can do video conferencing, we can do several types of chats etcetera. But, the difference between on what that is and what it's really like to sit with somebody in person is night and day. Well, that barrier is gonna dissolve. It's going to us all passion and people realize and that's going to change the nature of transportation, the nature of human interaction, our ability to travel, our ability to learn from each other and to create relationships that are not bounded by accidents of geography, etc..
DB: Well, that's so interesting for some that might be the first time you ever heard anything like that. But, I mean, it does make it total sense. Like I even said, I used to text and now use Facetime or actually Snapchat to interact through face to face encounter. That's my new texting method, right? That's a 9-second "Hey! How you doing? Or this is what's going on in my life" and yet, you're talking about that actually merging in and becoming closer and closer to like a 3D real-time not being able to differentiate. You know, like Facetime from actually real human interaction which well…
EP: And I think it's coming. Yeah. That's coming and it's not just connecting people that has been profound. That's been connecting with yourself. There's already experiments that are going to be exploding in terms of reality to bring them widespread where you can capture real-time imagery of your brain in 3D and understand what's really happening in that essence that really makes you, you! And enter that in 3D in real-time and learn that techniques that you know people maybe, which a bit months of others have learn for decades on how to affect your brain and change it even as your experiencing it yourself.
And that will let people change to who they are and understand themselves better. I think these are not really scary things like I think a lot of people look at that as maybe a tinkering on the wrong parts of humanity. I look at it as enhancing ourselves, and maybe taking control of our aspiration to become the best of that we can be.
DB: No, I'd love that and I agree the same. I believe that we've all been scared out of our mind from certain creation and things that people have…we have, we were, I mean, we really were. Every time something new that's being pioneered there is this is this mystery and fear that comes along with it. But then there is this adaption and adaption that sooner or later happens when most of the people begins to realize huh! this actually makes the world better, this actually makes and like you said, what it's gonna look like when I have to jump out on the airplane then go have face to face conversation with someone that I love in Peru. Come on, that's like it sounds a better world to me.
EP: That's right. What will be like to capture your own essence and leave that for future generations and then interact with you when you're long gone…
DB: Wow, that is crazy Eric…I love that…
EP: What if I can go on a walk with my great, great grandfather and gain some understanding where I came from where he went through what you would hope for me and incorporate that into my life in much more deep and meaningful life?
DB: Wow! Same thing with your children when you pass on they have this place where they can go and learn from you…and that is like, I mean, that is so mind blowing. It's like, it's hard to wrap my brain around it and I'm sure for most of those who are listening but, this is why I wanted you to come to the show because, Eric, there's something I want to have conversation with you. You open my mind, my heart to like bigger realities, right?
So, I would really interested in this you know, for someone that is starting a company. Let's say, you were an investor and you're looking at a coming companies or an organization to invest in, what would you be looking in for in the person running that business? Because, I think everyone is listening, if they have an idea. It's really good for them to attach themselves and write down some of the things that someone like you an accomplished leader is looking for in the people his hiring or investing into companies. What would you be looking for in that person?
EP: Ehem. I think you've asked the right question coz quite often the question would be is what kind of company would you invest in or what technology makes sense to put money into our time, but in fact, you asked a different question which is the right, which is who to invest? What types of person would you want to back or have part of your journey? And that's really what matters because, these things are built by people.
You don't rarely, you rarely can say okay, I'm going to do some things spectacular or different or that didn't seem possible like I'm gonna get on Craig's List and say wanted somebody with dynamic attitude with unbelievable experience on this particular discipline who has the ability to overcome barriers, etcetera. No, Craig's List not gonna return you or anyone interesting.
But, in your own network and the people you get to know, you can find this jam and you know that it doesn't matter what they take on, they're going to their way through. When I said earlier, that the primary quality in this people who find their way to the end is persistence.
We have a view that one way or another, they're going to get that goal. They are not inhuman, they don't, they bruise when they fall, they cry when it's sad, they can despair but one way or another they have that essential grip that's going to ride them through the tough times. And they're going to ultimately come out with something valuable.
Now, you said yourself what it means to be valuable doesn't mean that you have to re-invent the world or change something on a global scale but it means that you gotta contribute something that they wanted to see in the world. Whether that's part of bigger machine or as a leader. And, when you find those people, they're not everywhere and you want to hold them tight and invest in them.
DB: That's really good. I did a podcast this last week with a really incredible leader. He coined this phrase this is not mine. His name is Dean and he said "The promises that you're pursuing today, might be fulfilled for who you are preparing for tomorrow. " So, it's like the promises that you have on your life that you're standing, the dreams that you're standing for, might be fulfilled in your children, right?
EP: That's right.
DB: Might be fulfilled in the co-worker that you believe in that no one has believe in. That had incredible potential, but just like lack the capacity or someone that believe in him or her. And I really believe on what you just said. And yeah, thanks for sharing that. I really appreciate that.
You know, just to shift it really quick on the personal note. I would love you…your cousin running…you're busy managing your building. You got the beach right next to you. Listen, we're in Michigan, Eric. Okay it's May and this is like our first sunny day and forever.
EP: You're planning here staying.
DB: Yeah. Well, thanks! But, tell us what do you like to do for fun? What would you do to relax and kinda unwind and what you do for that?
EP: It's interesting. I actually find it fun to build companies. I do, do other things, all type but I, you know, I could take time off and pretend that I enjoy other things more. But, it's a kind of a toss-up sometimes when I'm on to something that I wanna do and I gotta group of collaborators whether it's a non-profit space or a project that we can actually impact somethings, somewhere for profit or non-profit. When there is group of married men and women going after this, it's really fun and so you can lay down your short and say now, I'm gonna relax, but then, you kinda miss it, like man, we could do some close-up right now.
DB: I'm totally with you men. You're giving sanity to my insanity to be honest.
EP: Yeah. So, you know, I understand there's a great other things to do…you know. Certainly, what I try to do is make sure that the things that are important to me don't get lost in that excitement because, just because I'm excited of doing something I enjoyed and its fun doesn't mean that's the most important thing in the world to me.
Most important things in the world to me as I found personally and also believe in any kind of research that things you read are your human relationships starting with your family, keeping yourself healthy, keeping your relationship strong and gaining the joy that comes out deepening those relationships.
DB: There's nothing like hanging out with your kids, right?
EP: Your kids, your family, your lover, wife or husband…These relationships are what really creates the substance of your life, and without that…you know, any kind of fun is less enjoyable.
DB: Right! You're so right. And first thing, I do want you to know that you did just make a little my sanity out of my insanity. Because you're my tribe men like and I know there's a massive tribe of people out there that we're talking about balance and there's really no such thing, right? And at the end of the day there's a harmony and one of our guests talked about that but I just think that I feel the same way Eric or I think I feel like sometimes you used the right words like when you're on to something and your sitting there in your bed and you're still thinking about this idea and you wanna like contain this architectural ideas and you wanna talk to 3 different people and build this websites, and build this podcast and build this you know, application. It's like that I can work every day in my life but, I really found my passion so, it's not work it to me, it's my hobby. It's what I love to do. So, thanks for make me normal for a second.
EP: It's, it's might not be normal. But it certainly is prevalent when people who considered themselves as entrepreneur and I think it's okay as long as you don't lose sight of the things…By the way, people do wanna deepened and start to get obsessed with certain things and then you look back and they recognized that maybe they neglected the things that mattered more. So, I do think that the balance is important.
DB: Right, I agree with you. That's my true passion with the DreamCast is to help the people get to the end of life and realize that they got there celebrated with the group of people with them because as what you said it's all about relationships, your friends, your family being a loyal person to the people that are close to you and you know what, we make mistakes, people makes mistakes but, it's not about defining yourself by your mistakes but in making memories out of your mistakes. But, really pushing forward to the future saying hey, I could done that better, I could done that better I wanna be a better person tomorrow.
I love that. You know, I like to create a moments on the show for people to see the realness of our guest. What's something that's been more difficult things you've gone through life? How did you persist through that? Could you talk about persistence and perseverance and that was actually my questions. What would something you gone through difficult? How did you come to persevere through that and relate to someone who's listening?
EP: Yes. I had many difficult times in my journey and I'm sure there's more ahead. And those difficulties can be very daunting, depressing and difficult to overcome. And for me, I could talk about maybe a couple of them just touching them, but maybe the most important about them is what you do to believe that everything is temporary and this is part of your journey and not the end of it. And you can see yourself through.
Ultimately, those thoughts I think gain strengths from what we were talking about earlier. From understanding what actually really is important and to what degree do you still have those. How can you sure up those aspects of the fundamental foundation of what matters in relationships and the trust that you have and how you can invest deeper into those.
Because, you know, there are times when it seems like that the rags been pulled out from under you and what you understood the world to be isn't in in fact how it's shaping up. And had those moments of… for instance, when my marriage didn't work out, and those quite both surprising to me and painful when I had…you know, when I kind of have a perfect storm back in the early 2000 when I had created the company which had grown to quite some size.
I ended up co-founding something that went public NASDAQ. It grow in to very significant size over a billion plus dollar evaluation on the stock market. I own a significant piece of that like a shareholder and was trying to even then turn my attention to a non-profit and what I could do with post social side of my energy. And even as I was doing that, the stock market crashed. I lost my money. I had lost my wife. I had 1, 3, 5 and 7 year old. It's a party train in a small apartment with massive expenses. No job. I haven't had a job since I was a cashier in 711 in junior high school because I can go out like you know and go get one or anything I could pay for what I had taken on.
So, I was kind of mired in wobble and that's one what I did on that time was first, I got sulk for a little bit for long, I dedicate getting myself in shape. I would jump in the ocean early in the morning pitch black and swim taking on kind of triathlon. I was not in very shape, but I was able to get my body in shape. I was able think of new ideas and start new projects and decided to take on the kids go on in terms of my focus and not step away from that.
DB: Engagement.
EP: You know, it kind of attacking things head on and deciding to put my energy that maybe I had in. It takes a lot of energy to be depressed and you can take that energy and redirect it to being joyful and inspired and healthy. You know, it's just re-direction of energy and you start to find that the results build on each other.
You know, life's kind of a momentum play and it keep going on one direction or keeps going on another. So, shifting that takes a bit of work but eventually it starts to build on itself. And I found that to be true and in recent times again, as an entrepreneur, you're not good in everything. Your goals are really to surround yourself with people who are better than you at most things.
I'm pretty good at seeing things that could come together and believing in how technologies and markets can converge to create new things. But, I don't have the… I don't do my own coding anymore. I get better people at each thing around me and even in the non-profit that I started, I had trouble in terms of them acting in ways that didn't get all the paper work in place at certain times creating controversies that were unexpected. And, you know, and as I started to look at those things involving in my life and stepping back, I realize you know I again you have to step up where do you stand for, what really matters, who are you, what are your true intentions and how do you draw on that base that hopefully you build and continue to build the relationships that people believe in you.
Because that comes back to the ultimate and most important realization of all, is that do you believe in yourself and how do you regain that sense and constantly nourish that over and over again. And I think that what's helped me overcome times of adversity and now expect there are to be more in the future and I hope I'll continue again to build that kind of base that I can till I have something to rely on as I need to step back and assess and overcome whatever challenges will come in the future as I'm sure I will have more.
DB: Thanks for sharing that. I wanna just say first, thank you. I mean that's a real humanity. You know, like you said, the carpet being pulled right of under your feet and that life for anyone who is listening right now. It really what it does, it produces hope because people are going to situation like this every day in your…Everything is going great…all of a sudden you're driving then boom! Someone hit you and you could become quadriplegic, or maybe, this happen to your family member, you lost a close loved one.
I mean, people have the rag pulled out of them and I think that this is the essence of life. One of the things I say is your response will dictate your future reward and I loved what you talked about is this…in those moments of desperation you can have your moments to cry but, I like what you said it does take the same amount of energy to be depressed as it does, to go back to your value system, and go back to your values, and go back to your principles, and getting yourself in shape, and getting healthy mentally. You know, spiritually in every way, relationally, these things financially, these things all need to work together, right? There a beautiful tapestry that creates an incredible life to be lived and a life to lead.
EP: I think what's really important. It's something that's very important to be open about it when you know, when you call me earlier and when you kind of introduce me that I created 15 companies, did this and the other thing and I think people can get an impression that they're not like that and maybe they feel that…maybe I didn't.
But, that's not the case. When somebody like me creates 15 companies, think of the 150 that I tried to create or the 40 that I didn't. How many worked? How many didn't? You know, when we starts stuff they regularly don't work… you know, life words filled with stuff of huge of boulders of companies that I tried and reverse and realize about wasn't the right thing to do let's kill it, let's try something else. That's a failure, let's learn from it.
DB: Is that hundreds of hours you invested in some of those things, too?
EP: I mean, more than that, way more than that. I mean, that is the understatement of the decade and what I can of resolve maybe several years ago is to make sure that I talk as much about those. I mean, I rarely as kind of… it's almost kind of…nervous tick I've constantly create companies and looking at things and trying things and very few of them make it to the starting line and that alone finish line. But, once I get to a point where I'm really… so ok were gonna do this, we gonna make it work. That's where the persistent comes in.
But, you still need to know where to *** and where to take… it's not a failure if you can take a wreckage of one thing and realize that's actually a total ground to build the next thing, whether it's a learning a technology of the people that you work with in the past. These things are very organic until you're just part of the process like a first part of a healthy environment, a healthy ***.
DB: I'm so glad so said that. That's good. Keep going.
EP: It's very important. But I should bring up one thing that is kind of profound on that subject and why I feel so strongly about that. My very good friend was an entrepreneur, very young, beautiful, dynamic, intelligent… That person committed suicide and I guess was probably 3 years ago now and it was very terrible thing. I won't go into details but, I will say this, one of the things that I felt contributed to that whether did or didn't did…this how I perceived it that she took found on a big challenge as an entrepreneur. And she went after this with my encouragement and others with all the good intentions that anyone could have go into something like that. And she ran into some serious challenges like most people do. She persisted and she did what she could and she got into a certain level of frustration or maybe sadness and where things going for her venture that she despaired. And, you know, it's probably it's not simplistic as that there's a lot of factors that goes into somebody's decision…
DB: Right.
EP: …like that. But, to me I feel like one of the factors that was at least a contributing factor was that she looks at people like me and others who build things and are seemingly high fiving with their friends and getting to the next steps and doing things that we believe in. She doesn't see the other side. A lot of people don't see the other side, the hardships, the challenges and what it takes…and…
DB: They're daily…I mean…
EP: Daily and difficult things and you are not alone. You know, when you hit this things, you're not alone. In fact, it's normal. It's just not spoken about as often as it should be. And I think that needs to change and we should be more open about these things. And the questions you're asking I think are part of that change…to bring it in the open to talk about. And, you know, that's okay, it's normal and you can get support from others who been through it. And you will get to the other side.
DB: Yeah. Well, I think just you know… I do think that this is one of the underlined purposes of the DreamCast. You know, I like to brag about your all your accomplishments because at the end of the day what I want to do is I want to pull out and extract the health of your story actually. And show people that you are real and if that Eric Pulier goes through all of the same thought process that any person has to go through to build anything big or small, right? And that's why I did ask did you waste hundreds of hours? Assuming the answer is yes because I think that you revealed what I want. You said that it's a mindset thing. It's hey, failure is not existing as long as you learn from it, right? Like when Thomas Edison, you create a thousand ways to not create a light bulb, not a thousand ways…to fail…
EP: I have tens of thousands of unpursued business plans and spreadsheets and PowerPoints and documents. Brainstorming, should we do this or should we do it that way, how would it work, what would I wanna do? Tried some, started up some, close others. Constantly re-invigorating and re-thinking, who-what-why, and who can contribute on how to get things done.
That's just the process and even after all of that, just getting, just picking the best ones, not everything always works but, when you go into it believing that it will and knowing that even if it doesn't, it is going to evolve into something that will.
DB: And it doesn't define your brilliance, right? It doesn't define your success. Like you said with this precious person in your life. You know, I think a lot of people like you said that this is a part of the decision making or choosing to be depressed or people that make that decision of suicide. Like it's the hopeless end that I'm a failure but you're not.
Where on the road to something greater where it's a part of our journey, it's a part of our history, it's a part of our story and I just wanna say something to that. And then it will end with this last question.
But, for me, Eric you know, I run two different non-profits, then I just launched my personal brand name website, DanielBudzinski.com, and I've a lot of people asked me. So, did you close down compassion and *** ? Did you stop working…? No, like I can do more than one thing and do them well, right? And, I always go back to someone like Dan Gilbert. Well, he has a hundred plus companies. Look at Air***, like you said he had a hundred different ventures. A hundred and fifty maybe didn't launch.
We're not defined by one thing. We can't, that is a limiting minds I'm not for everyone listening if you're in my life, I love you but, I can't be limited but what other people expect of me because I know the passion in my life to help people and it's gonna take many vehicles, right? I'm really glad you kind of set me up to just share that.
EP: Yeah. And I appreciate that. I'm equally inspired by you. I really do appreciate what you've done. At a young age, to be able to step forward and see that you do have multiple sides of yourself. That you are not going to be fully realized by simply coming up with an idea that makes money or getting a job that supports your family. That's noble, that's valuable and that is something you should do but, there's more to you. And to be able to give back and creates something that makes a difference in the world for profit or the non-profit side and to find those parts of yourself and manage that effectively is the most realized that I think a person can be. I admire how you going about it. And I'm just in awe of what you're doing.
DB: Well, thanks for saying that, man. It really does encourage me more that you know and the coz it hasn't been easy, right? Because it's not easy disappointing other people around you and even harder than that it's not easy taking them in the journey which is part of my purpose that I, I wanna take them in the journey. So, it's been fun. I will leave you with this last question.
So, for those listening in right now, let's say that, you, Eric, just had a few minutes left on the planet. Imagine you're at the end here, right? So, I would love for you to articulate what would you say to them, what you give as advice? Maybe, you would be with your children at your bed. Maybe you would be with a friend. Maybe it's just the listeners right now. What would you tell the world as you are exiting it? Easy question!
EP: Easy question. Maybe I will just tap my head and I'd say, basically that your time is limited. A lot of things are changing fast but not the amount of time you have left. Our life span may increase to some degree but not fast enough to matter for you to really recognize just how short you have here. And so, maybe use it to enjoy yourself to the absolute maximum potential you can and realize that the greatest joy is giving back. That's what you find the greatest satisfaction to your family, to your friend, to your significant others, to the world. And that, I think that's really where you can find the essence of feeling fulfilled and also, I'd say avoid too much buffalo chicken because as you gets older your metabolism slows down.
DB: Well, Eric thank you so much for being in the DreamCast podcast. I really appreciate your time and just your investment to the people listening to the show.
EP: Well, thanks. I really enjoyed it. And it's really fun talking to you. Hope I'll be in touch soon.
DB: Well, you've just listened with Eric Pulier, American Entrepreneur, Technologist, Published Author, Public Speaker and Philanthropist. He's the founder of over 15 companies and sold his latest for 260 million dollars. He's the co-author of Understanding Enterprise SOA and recognize for his innovation and success for entrepreneurship and enterprise technology. He could turn your small idea into a fully-pledged start up with millions in capital. He's raised hundreds of millions of dollars for his ventures and own a beautiful restaurant in Sta. Monica, California. He's changing the world one innovative idea at a time.
You've just listened to the DreamCast podcast. If you have a dream and don't know where to begin then start your journey with me at DanielBudzinski.com. If you enjoyed this DreamCast, please subscribe and receive our weekly updates on each podcast release. And leave us a review in iTunes. And if you have a friend with business or dream and they don't know where to begin, then share and invite them to the show because dreams are worth living and the first step start today. Until next time.
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The comfort in self-destruction
It seems like the subject matter of the majority of music that is released revolves around significant moments in one's life, strongly emotional events or thoughts, situations that inspire strength and confidence or reflect on instances of misfortune or dissatisfaction, and other out of the ordinary expressions. While this makes sense because subject matter that diverges from the routine of daily life is generally more compelling and unique, it is refreshing to come across music that perfectly captures the sometimes pleasantly comforting, sometimes painfully repetitive nature of day-to-day existence. Canadian smooth-talking, smooth-rocking slacker Mac DeMarco's 2012 tune "Ode to Viceroy" paints a hazy picture of the simultaneously pleasurable and destructive pattern of everyday life through the lens of paying tribute to his favorite brand of low-cost cigarette.
DeMarco's approach to rock can be likened to a faded, calmer version of Marcy Playground's style, but with a twist of blues and a dash of surf rock. Steady bass guitar and quiet percussion keep rhythm for his freewheeling, sliding guitar patterns and tranquil vocals, which complete the laid back vibe of the song, which sounds like it was recorded in a sunlit room, thick with mid-afternoon sunshine and swirling cigarette smoke, clouds of dust twinkling in the hazy light. While the lyrical content is relatively uncomplicated, it can be eerily relatable to anyone who is a creature of habit, addicted to something that they feel keeps them level but also has its downsides that have come to just be the cost of doing business. "Ode to Viceroy" is a treasure to the unmotivated, a true expression of not only human weakness itself, but also the enjoyment that comes with having the freedom to let go and succumb to the weakness.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Labour Group is to put forward a motion at the next full council meeting on 22nd January, saying they support firefighters receiving adequate remuneration for their service, and Government plans present a long-term risk to the service. We will demonstrate our support outside the Civic Offices.
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I am pretty new to digiscrapping, but I do like to look around and find good deals and neat kis.
Well, I have found my latest purchase, and 100% of this month's profits benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society!!
Here is a preview of the Kit:
And you can purchase it here: Songbird Avenue
I hope to have some layouts to show you in the next week using this awesome kit.


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"When it comes to Gotham, you don't know it, brother, it knows you."
That comes from Harvey Bullock, and precedes a revelation that makes a mystery quite personal for Batman. The last two pages of this book, above and beyond any other piece, is a nice encapsulation of this new post-relaunch Batworld. The supporting cast is present, mysteries abound, and Batman is set on edge, which as we all know makes for the best Batman stories.
Following Scott Snyder's work with the Dick Grayson Batman over on "Detective Comics" for the past year, it only makes sense to give Snyder a chance to see what makes the "real" Batman -- Bruce Wayne -- tick. Snyder delivers some great moments in this first issue that features both Bruce and Batman, and in doing so seems to be giving us a slice of what's to come in his time on this series.
For Batman to be surprised by a clue, and to have that clue hit so very close to home, epitomizes the loneliness Batman has established around himself. This mystery, this threat, is going to force Batman to take a harsh look at those around him and the city he lives in.
What makes this issue even better is the fact that Snyder drops a phalanx of Batman's rogues in on the first several pages and also showcases some fabulous WayneTech in action. As mentioned, this is a nice sampling of the status of the Batman corner.
Capullo's art is so animated, with cartoon-like sensibilities and motion, but with a hypnotic level of detail. The combination works well with Batman. The cartooniness might chase some people away from this story, but I think it helps the story pop off the page, adding a level of optimism that might not be present with any other artist. Capullo simply fills the panels with detail. In the latter half of the book, when Batman takes action, he's joined in the air by scads of bats. Again, it seems a little cartoony, but the visual would only work -- and work well, it does -- here in comics.
Capullo's Two-Face is hideous and revolting, but in a manner that is compelling and interesting to look at. The detail isn't simply for the sake of business, as seems to be the case on so many other books in this relaunch, as much as it is to deepen the world and add intensity to it.
The colors and letters nicely compliment Capullo's work. Plascencia's colors fit right in with Capullo's lines, and the end result is a visually stunning, but dark, book. Richard Starkings and Jimmy Betancourt deliver textbook examples of what lettering should be like for Batbooks. I've never been a fan of mixed case lettering in comic books, but for the caption boxes, it works nicely alongside the more traditional lettering used for the word balloons.
Snyder and Capullo do a great job bringing the entire Batcast in and giving them all a moment -- Alfred, Dick, Bullock, Gordon -- it's like a Len Wein-directed "How To Introduce a New Universe." There's enough here, kept at a high enough level to make it interesting and viable across media and digestible enough for even the most novice DC Universe reader.
My oldest child, who just turned 14, is a huge Batfan, based largely on what she's seen in the movies. She has seen "The Dark Knight" more than the years she's been alive. She did read the Bryan Q. Miller "Batgirl" every month, but we all know that's no longer an option. Drawn in solely by the cover image, she nabbed my copy of this and a half hour later was bounding down the stairs to talk about the issue. Score one for DC and score one for Snyder and Capullo in finding a new fan.
The one part of the book that hit me closest to home was Wayne's promise of a better Gotham. Wayne's words are akin to the promises I've been hearing in Detroit for as long as I've been here. I recently started working downtown and am watching the city find its way back. It's kicking and biting, clawing and pulling hair, but it doesn't want to be kicked anymore. I read Snyder's Gotham and I feel my Detroit.
It sure would be nice to have a hero like Batman and a personality like Bruce Wayne to help spark that interest. If we take Bullock's words to heart, though, there just may be some pretty big surprises ahead for Gotham, Wayne and Batman. At least from the end of this issue, it certainly looks like we've got some surprises coming up.
Click here for a preview of "Batman" #1!"


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Summit Entertainment have announced a whole swath of the supporting cast for the upcoming "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn" films – namely those playing the members of the various vampire covens and nomads from around the world. Joining the cast are:
The Amazon Coven
Tracey Heggins ("Medicine for Melancholy," "Things Fall Apart") as Senna and Judi Shekoni ("Garfield 2," "Private Moments") as Zafrina.
Among the oldest vampires in the world, Senna and Zafrina are descendants of an ancient Amazonian tribe. They have lived outside of civilization for centuries and therefore make no attempt to keep up a human facade. Though they drink human blood, the Amazons have long been allies of Carlisle.
The Egyptian Coven
Omar Metwally ("Rendition," "Munich") as Amun, Andrea Gabriel ("Lost," "House") as Kebi, Rami Malek ("24," "Night at the Museum") as Benjamin, and Angela Sarafyan ("Love Hurts," "The Good Guys") as Tia.
The Egyptian Coven consists of Amun, Kebi, Benjamin, and Tia, with Amun as the leader. It is stated that even though they are not a biological family, they could pass for one. Amun is extremely protective of his family and fearful of Aro.
The Irish Coven
Marlane Barnes ("The Tree of Life," "Artois the Goat ") as Maggie, Lisa Howard as Siobhan and Patrick Brennan as Liam.
The Irish Coven, a relatively young group, was founded by Siobhan and Liam, but Maggie's talent made her an important element of it. They are not vegetarian but they are civilized.
The Romanian Coven
Noel Fisher ("The Pacific," "Final Destination 2") as Vladimir and Guri Weinberg ("You Don't Mess with the Zohan," "Cane") as Stefan.
The Romanian Coven is one of the oldest covens in the world and they were the ruling vampire family until they were unseated by the Volturi. For that reason they harbor a centuries old resentment of the Italian coven.
The American Nomads
Lee Pace ("Pushing Daisies," "Infamous") as Garrett, Toni Trucks ("Music and Lyrics," "All of Us") as Mary, Bill Tangradi ("Amigo," "Castle") as Randall, Erik Odom ("Transposition," "To Hell and Back") as Peter, Valorie Curry ("Veronica Mars") as Charlotte.
Turned during the Revolutionary War, Garrett has chosen to live a nomadic existence, wandering the world on his own. Garrett has never lost the rebellious spirit of his human life, and loves a good fight, always rooting for the underdog. Though not a vegetarian, Garrett is among Carlisle's closest and oldest friends.
Peter and Charlotte are nomadic vampires and mates. They were created during the aftermath of the Southern Vampire Wars, in which Jasper was a key player. They have remained friends with Jasper ever since.
Mary and Randall are American nomadic vampires.
The European Nomads
Joe Anderson ("The Crazies," "Across the Universe") as Alistair
A nomadic vampire from England, Alistair has a misanthropic, brooding personality and a deep mistrust of all authority. Although he counts Carlisle as his closest acquaintance, he doesn't visit more than once a century.


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Deborah Sweaney will be presenting a talk on her second book, Up in the Air, on Saturday, March 28, from 1-2:30 p.m. in the upstairs rooms of Whistlestop Bookshop.
In her second memoir about growing up in rural Oregon, Missouri, Deborah Sweaney highlights a tale of two communities. Rooted in farming, situated just down the road from one another, both towns cling to their long-standing cultural differences as they face-off in opposition to a school merger. It was unthinkable that some far-away government agency could mandate their schools and their identity -but mandate they did.
These little towns were being robbed of something precious that they had built and nurtured for decades. The schools were the center of life for many self-contained communities and the natural rivalries that had flourished were happily played out with enthusiasm on football fields and basketball courts all over our country. And everyone, it seemed, was just fine with that.
While larger issues like racial equality, a war southeast Asia and the horror of assassinations were just on the national horizon, school students like those in Oregon, Missouri were feeling their own unrest and sense of insecurity over the uncertainty that was clouding their once self-contained world.
Up in the Air is at once a look at the enormous social maelstrom that defines the 1960's and the up-close impact those cultural changes were having on the everyday lives of the ordinary citizens and school kids in two country towns in Holt County, Missouri. For these folks and millions like them, the outcome was and perhaps still is, Up in the Air.
Some of the proceeds from "Up in the Air" will go toward education programs and scholarships administered by the Iris and Frank Sweaney Fund and National History Da


text: My name is Eleena. I come from Borneo, Malaysia but i'm currently pursuing my BFA in Motion Media Design in the Savannah College of Art and Design. Sometimes i draw things, and sometimes they move. Other times you'll find me skulking the fiction isle or watching Jimmy Fallon videos on Youtube.


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Building Equality in Architecture Toronto [BEAT] was formed by a team of dedicated architects and designers in October 2015 under the support and guidance of local established architects.
BEAT is an independent organization dedicated to supporting equality and diversity in the profession of Architecture through advocacy, community engagement, supporting minorities in Architecture and professional development. We create events and web content to promote the advancement of women in the profession, provide mentorship, networking and leadership opportunities.


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By John Ruberry
It's hard to fathom now, but one of the major issues of the 2012 presidential campaign was Mitt Romney's 15-year leadership of the Boston-based private equity firm Bain Capital, which he co-founded.
Two years later President Obama, who of course defeated Romney in '12, faces multiple crises, including scandals involving IRS targeting of conservative groups, deadly waiting lists at VA hospitals, as well as a collapsing Iraq, Russia's seizure of Ukraine, a still stagnant economy, and 300,000 illegal alien children crossing over our lightly watched southern border.
None of these hotspots have anything to do with Bain Capital, other than, remotely, the rotten Obama economy.
Under Romney, Bain rescued many companies from failure. And it provided seed money for new firms such as Staples, which now operates over two-thousand stores. Sure, a few of Bain's investments didn't work out, but failure–as well as success–is how capitalism works.
While at the NATO summit in the spring of 2012, Obama defended attacks on Romney's tenure at Bain.
What did that have to do with NATO?
However, Romney left Bain in 1999 to engineer his greatest turnaround, the rescue of the scandal-plagued 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He then moved on and was elected governor of Massachusetts.
During the campaign, a liberal super PAC, Priorities USA, blamed Bain Capital and Romney in a video for the death from cancer of a woman after her husband was laid off from a Bain-owned company. That claim was almost immediately debunked, yet Obama only half-heartedly disavowed it.
Obama and his surrogates were partaking in an old Saul Alinksy tactic–straw man attacks.
Paul Ryan, Romney's running mate, neatly summed up Obama's mischief last year:
Look, it's the same trick he plays every time: Fight a straw man. Avoid honest debate. Win the argument by default.
Yes, Obama is winning arguments. But our nation is becoming increasing dysfunctional.
Obama, like King Robert Baratheon in Game of Thrones, mistakenly believes victory and running a country are the same thing.
It's a road map for disaster. And we have arrived at our unhappy destination.
John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.


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Edited by Daniel R. Meier, Stephanie Sisk-Hilton
2013 Routledge/David Fulton
Nature Education with Young Childre is a thoughtful, sophisticated teacher resource that blends theory and practice on nature education, children's inquiry-based learning, and reflective teaching. The book's guiding conceptual framework is founded upon the integration of four key ideas for effective and transformative nature education:
• The power and value of equity and access to nature education
• Effective teaching encompasses child development domains and integrates ECE curriculum
• Children learn best through inquiry-based and child-centered teaching
• Powerful teaching is founded upon teacher inquiry and reflection.
Implementing nature study is one critical way that educators can integrate more science learning across the ECE curriculum and do so in an active, discovery-based manner. Nature Education with Young Children strives for an American version of what the Reggio Emilia educators do so well: creating a seamless integration of science concepts into the daily intellectual investigations that occur in classrooms everywhere.
Copyright © 2019 Books Education Privacy Notice | Conditions of Use Book Store managed by Quick Call Dave Ltd


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Ill Doots
Collective is a casual word that gets tossed around in the world of music and art, usually to indicate a loose group of collaborators that share a common place, culture, and similar ideology. Such is the case with Ill Doots, yet they transcend the term collective in an open source, dynamic community of artists, educators, and musicians. They are from many places, assembled in the great city of Philadelphia, with a shared emphasis on the value of the process rather than the product. With an open flow like this, it is natural that the output takes varied forms.
Art, Education, Activisim are all on the table with this band: In 2015 ILL DOOTS worked under the direction of Joanna Settle to compose and perform music for Flashpoint Theatre Company's "Hands Up", for which they received the Barrymore Award for Best Original Music. In 2016 ILL DOOTS composed and performed the Wilma Theatre's production of "An Octoroon" under the direction of Settle yet again.
As a collective of arts educators, ILL DOOTS launched the I Love Learning initiative in 2014, setting up free workshops in schools, after school programs, churches and other shared spaces along their tour routes and at home. The initiative is ongoing both in Philadelphia and elsewhere.
They are on a lifelong mission to change the way our communities respond to and value music, art, and life.
Musically, Ill Doots references J Dilla and The Roots and despite the fact that many are Philly transplants, the sound has a distinctly Philly feel. Chill, grooving, pointed and positive, the band captures the essence of life on Philly streets. Facing the social and political challenges of our times with resolve and turning it to the positive with a fun vibe and full community interaction.
We live in a time of heightened transition – the move from singular to plural is in full swing, and it's all a bit dizzying as we try to grasp what a fully interconnected world looks like. Ill Doots are the humans that get it, they are the model that actively embraces and implements the change.
Ill Doots
Release Date: July 27, 2018
Recorded & Mixed by Micah Forsyth
Produced by Scott Ziegler
Mastered by Ryan Schwabe
Recorded at:
Wattstudio-Philadelphia, PA
Converse Rubber Tracks-Brooklyn, NY
Tasker House-Philadelphia, PA
University of the Arts-Philadelphia, PA
Scott's House-Philadelphia, PA


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By Cass DuCharme
According to my personal calendar, 1953 was 7 BC, "before Cass." Since I'm a 1960 model, I have no memory of what happened 60 years ago. Although I was not around way back then, I have been told by some of you who were, how special that year was.
This past Sunday, Highland Hills celebrated 60 years of walking together as a church. And what a celebration it was! We remembered God walking with us in the past. Through six pastors, four ministers of music, and several youth, children, and preschool ministers, God has been at work. We celebrated that God still walks with us today. With Brett as our interim pastor and a long-tenured staff, God continues to work. We prayed with confidence that God will always walk with us. Not knowing what the future holds, we press on knowing that the God of our past and present will be with us in the future. The service was led by two former pastors, Dave Hailey and Jim Bruner, a former minister of music, Lyn Hicks, current staff, charter members, and newcomers. What a joy it was for two of our founders, Beverly Mallary Findlay and Mary Willingham to also be in attendance. The day also included dinner on the grounds, but because of the rain I guess we could call it dinner-all-over-the-church. Many a chicken and pig gave their lives so that we could celebrate our big day.
Speaking of 1953, that year was special in my family, too. My parents met on July 4, 1953 and were married on August 1of the same year. My dad wasn't in to long courtships, so 27 days after they met, they married. For 51 years, until Mom's death in 2004, Mom and Dad walked through life together. With their faith in God and each other, they survived five kids, colleges, weddings, grandkids, good days, bad days, sickness, and health. Side by side and hand in hand they walked. Although Mom is no longer with him, Dad continues the journey.
Our church's journey is like that, too. The best part of our journey, like in a healthy marriage, is that we are walking it together. Although I was not around when our church began, I'm glad that the founders of our church and many of you were. This beautiful church has always been a place for us to walk together, literally and spiritually, and although many of those who were here in those early days are no longer with us, our journey together continues. With God as our leader, we walk on to a bright future.


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By Daniel DePetris
Approximately 72 hours after the world woke up to another chemical weapons attack on civilians perpetrated by Assad regime warplanes, President Donald Trump responded with a "go" order to the U.S. military. Fifty-nine Tomahawk cruise missiles from the USS Porter and the USS Ross based in the Mediterranean Sea were launched in the direction of the very airfield where the chemical weapons strike in Idlib province originated. After the barrage was over, President Trump gave a quick statement from his Florida retreat, stating the military action that he ordered was in response to an attack that was "an affront to humanity" and an insult to everyone who values international law.
There was one giant actor missing in this entire story, however: The United States Congress.
If you were looking for the legislative branch—the actual branch of government that possesses the power to declare war under our constitutional system of government—to fulfill its role as an active participant, you might as well stop reading now.
Questions about whether Trump's missile strike on a Syrian military airfield was constitutional will be debated in the coming days and weeks (one hopes). Indeed, if last night's round of airstrikes in Syria weren't merely symbolic but instead a sign of things to come, lawmakers will have no choice but to reschedule their Easter vacations and stay in Washington to debate and vote on yet another military campaign in the Middle East.
In an ideal world where the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution are laws of the land, President Trump would have done the necessary groundwork with the Congress and executed a legislative strategy to keep America's representatives informed about what he planned to do—before the first Tomahawk was fired into Syrian airspace.
The War Powers Act is quite clear: "The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces." The U.S. Constitution is even clearer: "The Congress shall have the power...To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water."
As horrific as the Assad regime's chemical attack on civilians was, it simply does not rise to the criteria outlined under war resolution statute. And as far as Congress declaring war? Well, they haven't mustered the courage to vote on an Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) since 2002.
What we saw instead last night was members of Congress opting to send weighty press releases stating their policy preferences instead of doing their jobs and voting on whether to authorize military actions. It appears that fourteen years of carping from the peanut gallery has seeped into the twittersphere. The default response for most lawmakers, encapsulated last night, is rally around the flag and demand answers later.
Ordering a targeted military attack is one thing, but ordering it without even consulting members of Congress in the process is something else entirely.
Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a lawmaker who should be consulted, at the very least, by the president or his designees, was apparently out of the loop. According to Cardin's statement, the White House informed him of the decision once the U.S. military was the Tomahawks were already in the air—not exactly a boon for executive-legislative relations, nor the kind of consultation that the Founders of our Republic had in mind when they wrote the country's most important document.
The fact that Sen. Bob Corker, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, was informed prior to the missile launch makes the situation to keep Cardin in the dark more concerning because it suggests the administration views Republicans on Capitol Hill as partners and Democrats as outcasts.
Judging from the Twitter feeds of many lawmakers in the hours after the airstrike, they were informed about the president's decision like every other American—through media reports. Acts of war should never be a partisan exercise.
Rightly or wrongly, President Trump made his decision as the Commander-in-Chief. The problem is that he implemented that decision without legal authority and before explaining fully to the American people—or even their elected representatives—what the administration's overall objectives in Syria are; whether the strike in Syria last night was a one-time event; or whether Americans should expect a longer and more intensive campaign intended to overthrow the Syrian government.
Congress was sidelined last night. And many members are likely relieved that they were; it's the politically easy way out of a very hard issue that does, after all, have substantial political risk attached to it. But declaring war or authorizing military force isn't supposed to be easy. As former Senator and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel once said, if you want easy, retire from Congress and "go shine shoes" instead.
Now that the U.S. Armed Forces have engaged the Assad regime for the first time since Syria's civil war erupted more than six years ago, Congress must step up to the plate and make it abundantly clear to the Trump administration that the Constitution isn't some optional document where the president can pick and choose which articles to follow and which to ignore. Hold hearings. Compel testimony from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis about what the Syria policy is. And if the strikes continue, stop dithering and schedule a public debate on what could very well be the beginning of an unpredictable intrusion into the Middle East's bloodiest civil war in decades. Their spring vacations can wait.
Daniel DePetris is a fellow with Defense Priorities.
This piece was originally published by The Hill on April 7, 2017. Read more HERE.