COVID-19

Five phases of leadership during the pandemic

Last week was a very busy one for me for writing and reflecting. To write is to learn.

I finished my five-part series on leadership during the pandemic in Austin’s definitive cultural magazine, Urbānitūs. I owe a debt of gratitude to the Editor and Co-founder, David Judson, who really brought out the best in me and helped make the series much better. I was also able to work in the historic and tragic events of the week — a week I’ll never forget.

Here are the five, published Urbānitūs articles:
1. Fear
2. Euphoria
3. Depression
4. Acceptance (not surrender)
5. Imagining what lies beyond

Three big reasons you should have faith in a Biden and Harris Administration

You may be wondering why I haven’t been writing as much on Lucky7 this year. Well, I’ve been very busy with data.world but also in campaigning for what would hopefully be a Biden+Harris win over Trump+Pence. I made a New Year’s Resolution to do so, understanding that it is hard to step out there as such a public CEO. But I knew I wasn’t going to be able to look our children in the eye if I didn’t do so and Trump won again - I had to do everything I personally could to protect our democracy. I kept my personal activities campaigning separate from my work activities as the CEO of data.world to the best of my ability, but I got really active to say the least. This took a lot of time and I’m very happy to be even a small part of this historic win for our country. As of this writing, Biden+Harris are projected to receive 306 Electoral College votes and also win by over 5.5m votes in the popular vote count.

I should point out that I’m a centrist and a proud Independent voter, having voted for as many Republicans as I have Democrats. I vote my conscience and base my vote on policies and what I think our country most needs. As an entrepreneur, I really value the ability to think independently. Thinking this way requires you to use your intellect to see the world differently and not fall into following the herd. There are good reasons for herd thinking given our evolutionary history, but it is not always conducive to the best decision making. Independent thinking helps me come up with business ideas as well as evaluate new investments and entrepreneurs (note: we are now in 93 startups and 29 VC funds, although data.world certainly takes the majority of my time as CEO and has been my primary career passion for five years and running now).

TED Connect rises in the era of COVID-19, and Ray Dalio offers much wisdom

In the spirit of living an Always Be Learning life (read Chapter 4 in “The Entrepreneurs Essentials”, which is available for free online at Medium), TED Connect has been a terrific series during this very challenging global crisis due to the rapid spread of COVID-19. On Wednesday, TED interviewed Ray Dalio and it didn’t disappoint. I went to school on this like I would if my best professor in finance was presenting while I was at The Wharton School. What follows are my notes from his talk.