Problems = Opportunities

Why do we do anything? Who really knows?

This I know —-

When I am alone in my own head with my hopes, dreams, fears and insecurities wrestling —- three falls to each and then the winner and if I don’t like the winner, then a rematch —- I cannot remember anything more joyous than floating in the ocean where the water is way over my head or body surfing.

The feel of the salt and sun on my skin is the same whether I am broke or flush.

I know, I have been both.

Do you think Bill Gates feels better than me? I don’t think so. It is not possible. Is there more joy available?

In a week, I will watch my beautiful Perfect Daughter graduate from college. She is smarter than me. More sensitive than me. More worldly than me. More clever by twice. I was only her enabler.

I am waiting to see what she accomplishes because it is going to be way more than I ever imagined and I have a wild, untamed imagination.

When I think about the accumulated wisdom of the AVC.com salon and its unquenched energy, I smile. It is rueful smile as I see the hard edge of genius, the light of brilliance and the warmth of accomplishment.

But I also see the impatience of both youthful exuberance and the insanity of entrepreneurship.

Money and stuff is stupid. I hate stupid. I hate stupid more than anything else I have ever encountered on that side of the ledger. It is a barter which does not involve your soul.

The currency with which you are really paid is your measure against yourself. I jumped out of airplanes because I wondered if I could do it. I could.

I started businesses to see if I could do it. I could.

Don’t let life buy you with lucre. Worse yet, don’t let it rent you.

Trade for more dear stuff —- the satisfaction of having plotted and followed your own course, the thrill of having walked the high wire of life with no safety net, the mutual respect of good people, the love of a good mate and a full draught —- not a shot glass —- of all that life offers.

Go bite the ass off a bear every day of your life and then tell me you can keep score only with money.

If the gods favor you —- as they will, my friends, I promise —- and you get to the Pay Window, do good works with your money. Money is only useful for good works. How many freakin’ cheeseburgers can you really eat?

Don’t be afraid to be kind to yourself, you will deserve it.

In the end, you will be richer for it. I know.

“

—	Commenter JLM’s response to Fred Wilson’s AVC post: “Where’s my Billion Dollar Check, I Wonder”. Resonates with me on so many levels.

Accelerating Renewables

On the renewable front, we’re still far behind where we need to be. We have massive renewable portfolio targets that need to be met in relatively short order. As I see it, we can’t deploy renewables fast enough. We need to get as many of them online as possible. And the bottleneck for deployment isn’t roofs, or demand for electricity, it’s money. It’s tax equity. It’s all the convoluted mechanisms we’ve used to stimulate the renewables.

So, when we do get capital deployed into renewables, I can’t stand to see it leave. It needs to stay in the renewable ecosystem, growing and building and cleaning and powering our world, more and more with each solar lease or PPA payment. Instead of looking for ways to get cheaper debt from banks, we have an opportunity to change the sign on that interest rate. Instead of paying negative interest to financiers, what if solar paid positive interest to itself? What if the revenues these projects were generating were reinvested in more and more capacity? If we applied compounding to solar?

I think we can answer these questions together. Instead of shipping your savings off to Wall Street, what if you could use them to buy equity in a solar utility? Instead of it sitting in a mutual fund for 20 years, what if it was compounding in clean power plant financing for 20 years? Well, you’d end up owning a huge amount of solar. And that solar would make clean energy and print you money while saving your customers money too. It’s a win-win-win.

hey amber rae: Question the situation, not the person »

heyamberrae:

Whenever I see people procrastinating, underperforming, or distracted, I’m reminded of a moving story I read in Sir Ken Robinson’s The Element.

He tells the story of a young girl named Gillian who was underperforming at school. She couldn’t sit still, was disruptive, and was always…

Looking forward to heading home and building some big solar projects like this! (Taken with instagram)

An appropriate advisory sticker for any Black Keys album (Taken with instagram)

FAKEGRIMLOCK: Startup You »

You can never have too much FAKEGRIMLOCK. Good advice to kick the year off right!

cnnmoneytech:

Fake Grimlock, a caffeine-fueled giant robot dinosaur, has been stomping through the blogs of tech luminaries such as Fred Wilson, Eric Ries and Brad Feld dispensing advice and commentary on the startup scene. Here at CNNMoney, we’re fans of his rather stark perspective and tendency…

Makes me happy that what I really want to do is build a LOT of clean energy, and that the side-effect of that will be regular people making a good return on investments into their own community. Turns out that’s well-aligned with the “good motivators”.

thenwaldosaid:

RSA Animate - Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

This is an excellent graphic explanation of the way people are motivated in the work place. If you look at the way most companies incentivize employees, your first guess would be Money.

However, when put under a scientific lens, it appears that we aren’t as shallow as we think. Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose have been found to push us forward in work, and in life.

What motivates you?

Should be a fun weekend! (Taken with instagram)

I think I want to join Thomas Suarez’ app club. He’s 12 and knows Python, C, and Java! Incredible.

brycedotvc:

If you thought Y Combinator was shaking up the entrepreneurial world, wait until every High, Middle and Elementary school have “App Clubs” creating apps used by the faculty and district and generating revenue that funds tech and entrepreneurial focused school programs.

Thomas Suarez is a 6th grader who sees the future. Which is why his TEDxManhattanBeach is required weekend viewing on BRYCE DOT VC.

Matte blue Nissan GTR spotted in 90210 today. Interesting how matte’s gone beyond black (Taken with instagram)