The story of the Tadaa logo

You guys must know that I have been outsourcing a lot with my previous company.

Just for fun, I compiled a small presentation about how we came up with the logo.
We worked a lot with that argentinian company and came up with something pretty cool.
I liked the funny robot, and mostly I really liked to put something not so serious in the company's identity.

Looking back. Those were good times discussing with people all around the world on MSN, just to find out they're just like us.

Yes, suppliers are people too.


Here's the presentation:

Story Of Tadaa Bot

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Partnership is like a wedding.

Now that I have learnt from my previous mistakes in entrepreneurship, I'm trying to get a new business going.
One of the mistakes I made was to work alone.
It's true that you can succeed alone. Especially if you can afford to outsource everything you can not do.

However, every little success becomes meaningless if it can't be shared.

My new venture involves a partnership and the 50/50 share was a big issue.

Pros.
50/50 gives everyone the same importance. Nobody feels left behind and the commitments should be equal. As well everyone keeps control of the company.

Cons.
If the partnership goes bad, then the company is paralyzed. And that's more common that you might think it would happen.

Planning for that is like planning for a wedding. You should start planning as if anything could go bad and imagine very possible cases. It's not the most pleasant part of the process, but it should be done.

As the say, plan the for the worst, hope for the best.

Hotmail : You don't have an inbox yet ...

Hell with it.
My hotmail account says I don't have an inbox yet.

What have I been doing for the last 6 years?

My life flashes before my eyes. All the mails that I received.
My friends leaving me their best wishes. Travel pictures.
Job applications.
A part of my life has vanished.

Have I been hacked?
Is someone sending porn to all my contacts?
Will I ever have that mail account any more?
Will I receive the future mails? Are people going to be notified?

Shaking, sweating, I feel a part of myself has been ripped away.

After a bit of search on the internet... Everyone is out of hotmail!!!
It is a global shutdown. France, US, Singapore...
I am not the only one.
I see people gathering in groups in forums... sharing their personal experiences.
They meet in yahoo and google groups to show their relief of not being alone.
Some people joke about a internet going down and nukes being launched.

We try to find support. We find nobody but ourselves.
This is a traumatic experience.
We share the anxiety together.

We'll laugh about that later. Still, my account does not work.

We'll talk about that.
We'll smile.
We'll sue Bill Gates.

Update: Now it's working... thank god (how I got it back in comments). Now, let's move to gmail...

From weakness to strength...

I came across that very inspirational story/fiction. I felt like sharing it with you.

Weakness to Strength

There was once a 10 year old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident. The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn’t understand why, after three months of training, the master had taught him only one move.

“Sensei,” the boy finally said, “shouldn’t I be learning more moves?” 

“This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you’ll ever need to know,” the sensei replied.

Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.

Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match.

Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a timeout. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened.

“No,” the sensei insisted, “Let him continue.”

Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion.

On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind.

“Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?”

“You won for two reasons,” the sensei answered. “First, you’ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. Second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm.”

The boy’s biggest weakness had become his biggest strength.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, I experienced a stunning defeat at the national kung-fu championship.

Memory and mind tricks

Would you believe some people can't understand why others have to take notes?

That's because they have learnt very early in their life to use efficient memory techniques.

Why would you want to remember everything?
Well, you know, it has always a bad effect when you forget an appointment or the name of the girl you were talking to. You can always call her "Baby", but that will wear out. Switching to "Honey" won't make things better though.

Big principles.
-Multiply the sensory channels. This way you'll have more chances remembering.
-Find associations between what you already know and what you want to remember. Sometimes, the weirder, the better.
-Make stories. Your grocery list can be a battle between HUGE CARROTS throwing PEAS at CRYING TOMATOES, spilling juice everywhere and pierced by every PEA bullet. You can see the TOMATO juice on the CARROTs faces.
-Group things in an intelligent way. YODKAERB is meaningless. KEYBOARD is easy to picture, therefore to remember.

Applying those should be a snap, if you do this on a regular basis. The trick is to shift those items from short-term memory to long-term memory.

The Peg system.
1-gun Visualize the first item being fired from a gun
2-zoo Visualize an association between the second thing and a zoo
3-tree Visualize the third item growing from a tree
4-door Visualize the 4th item associated with a door
5-hive Visualize the fifth item associated with a hive or with bees
6-bricks Visualize the sixth item associated with bricks
7-heaven Visualize the seventh item associated with heaven
8-plate Visualize the 8th item on a plate as if it is food
9-wine Visualize a glass containing the 9th item
10-hen Visualize the 10th item associated with a chicken.

The peg system has many variations including body parts, colors so that you can remember up to 4 digits number.

The Loci method.
Imagine a path you often take, and drop the items along the way. You'll be able to remember them while taking that path again.

Face-Name trick.
When you see someone, and you'd like to remember the name, try to find specificities about the name. If that name recalls an object, imagine that person playing with it. I fit recalls an old friend, imagine them holding hands.

There are no bad techniques. The only requirements should be that it works for you.