Andre Durand

This is the day that VC’s panicked.

It’s a good time to be a quality company which adds value by reducing cost within the enterprise.

My Fidelity Netbenefits Account.

–> Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2008 to 10/09/2008 is -42.5%

Life isn’t fair. I know this, and yet I struggle with it. Within my very small sphere of control, I try to make things fair, and I now plenty of others do the same, but it’s not always easy, or necessarily the right thing to do. It’s harder to do the more people you put in the ‘bubble’. Try to put a whole society in that bubble and well, it’s impossible to keep everything fair.

It’s not fair that some people are born beautiful, talented and in good families that can provide while others aren’t. However, this is our reality.

As a society, there is a certain balance that we try to maintain between this reality of unfairness, and our sense of responsibility to balance the equation for those that are less fortunate, or simply less capable. But this is a delicate, delicate balance, and if you push it too far, you can break it.

I just watched a video that expresses an angle of the causes of the recent financial crash. The video is mired in politics, (I’m sorry) and clearly has an agenda. Personally, I think both parties had their hand in the cookie jar on the current debacle, and I’m not so interested in the politics of it as I am in the underlying concept of capitalism.

So, back to my point. Most of us live the life we do because we’re educated, we work hard, we work smart, we innovate, we sacrifice, we attract talent to work with us and we work within a capitalistic framework which allows us to improve our lot in life. Not everyone has an equal chance to achieve fame or fortune in this framework (that’s the unfair reality), but the possibility for improvement is there nonetheless.

Given an inherent unfairness, as a society, we are faced with a question of what to do about it. How do we balance inequality? My personal bias has been to try to balance inequality as best I can but within limits. Those limits are to ensure that I somehow don’t break the underlying formula of capitalism altogether.

I don’t know enough about the underlying details in the above video to know what’s actually true versus things taken out of context. But with regards the video’s claim that regulation, in particular, the Community Reinvestment Act, was one of the foundations of things gone wrong, I do agree that forcing banks (or anyone for that matter), through regulation, to make what amounts to risky loans is simply a bad policy. It fundamentally breaks the formula while pushing to create an artificial balance that’s simply not sustainable. As harsh and cold as capitalism actually is, it reflects a framework that rewards those that work hard and have talent that is valued. That’s not always fair, but it reflects reality.

I’ve spoken to a number of people lately about the importance of quality from the outset. How quality is more than just a bias, and how seemingly harmless compromises to quality come back to haunt you and your enterprise in unsuspecting ways — often with interest.

Truth is it takes backbone to say “no”, yet that little word, spoken at the right time, is often times all that stands between a smooth running company, and one that seems to struggle with the consequences of their decisions. Do this wrong, and it’s inevitable you’ll be getting the ‘CEO’ call from an unhappy customer. I’ve been fortunate here at Ping, in six years and 260 customers, I’ve not received that call. I think it’s inevitable that someday I’ll get it, and when I do, I’ll blame myself, because it will likely be something I did, or allowed to happen, that triggered the call, even if it’s now 50 steps removed.

I can talk about this, because I’ve made this exact mistake before. I’ve bowed to the pressure of a prospect asking for a feature that I wasn’t sure I could deliver, only to have to deal with the issue later. These things can be a death spiral if you’re not careful. While you might not realize it, or want to realize it, there’s a very direct cause and effect beginning with your commitment to quality and how you set expectations. I’ve been fortunate here at Ping to have people that know how to say no. Who know when to call out the fact that we are promising more than we can guarantee, and people who care about our reputation at ALL the times. These people have allowed Ping to enjoy tremendous success, with very little disruption to our growth. Not all my experiences have been this delightful.

Take this scenario as case in point:

In the end, there is always a much higher price to pay for a lack of integrity up-front, and it’s very hard to build a quality organization if you are unable to make tough decisions along the way. My VP of Engineering has a statement which captures this, “Go honest early.”

I built my first car at 15. An old 69 Camero I bought on my paper route for $250. 18 months later, with a new blueprinted 4-bolt 350, Carter 750, Edelbrock, Mallory, TCI Turbo 350, 12 bolt posi. 4:11 Richmond diff, Pete Jackson Gear Drive and some sweet Centerlines, I was rolling in high school. I used to push it out of the driveway so as to not wake the parents while drag racing my friend on his 125cc two-stroke Kawasaki.

Over drinks last night with some of the newbies at Ping, I got into my desire to build an 8 second quarter miler and race it on Pinks. Sergei, one of our newest (21 years old) says he can do it. I’m not convinced, but happy to be proven wrong. Now I’ve just got to find an old 68 Camero to start with.

Many of you know I’ve been attending boot camp since January. Over the summer, there is an all-outdoors class called “Level 10″ instructed by an active duty Marine, aptly named, “Major Wood”. Summer is over, and Level 10 is over, but Major Wood was able to squeeze in one last 1 week class (between normal boot camps). You have to love his pep-talk.

Welcome to Level-10. The purpose of Level-10 is to take you outside your comfort zone, physically and/or mentally, and operate outside that zone to overcome whatever obstacle may lie in your way. Anyone who has executed a disciplined exercise regimen over a period of time realizes that gains are incrementally harder to come by, and pushing oneself to their true limit in isolation is often difficult. While this course is only 1-week in duration, it will seek to help you explore the limits of your physical and mental prowess. By reaching those limits, the mind and body are forced to grapple them head on. With the help of a few of your closest friends and experienced instructors, obstacles……limits, are overcome, and you grow stronger, not only for athletic related events, but for life’s various personal and professional challenges. This is the first Level-10 to be run in the fall/winter period and there will be some inherent risks navigating man made and natural terrain in the dark. Ambient light will be scarce and the mornings will be cool/cold.

Please Bring
- Moonbeam (flashlight) or head lamp or bat vision.
- Empty trash bag for dirty or damp/wet clothes
- Change of clothes to get dry quickly after class, to include shoes
- Gloves- every day, full fingered
- NOT your best, prettiest PT attire. If you have multiple sets of go-fasters (running shoes) wear your old ones, we’ll be getting dirty

I retired my HP 970Cse Deskjet today. I thought it was broken, but only as my new printer arrived did I realize that the back panel was simply open.

It’s a bit of a sentimental moment for me. This printer has sat next to me since day 1 here at Ping. It’s the same printer I used to create the “PingID Worldwide Headquarters” logo which I stuck on my door the first day of Ping (when we had 2 employees). It’s printed every business plan of mine since then.

It’s not quite as fun arriving places if you don’t get there with the people (things) that you started with. That’s likely been the hardest part about growing Ping from nothing. Missing all the great people I’ve worked with over the years.

Don’t worry little HP, I’m not going to give you away, or even send you to the printer scrap yard. You’re doing the distance with me. I’ll just move you a little closer to the window so that you can enjoy your retirement. Perhaps in a few years, I’ll dust you off and we can go on another road trip!

About every 3 to 4 years, I see a commercial showing some latest trick that “Asimo”, Honda’s robot, is now able to accomplish. A few years ago, he served up a tray of coffee. Walking it over from the kitchen to a table and setting it down. Today he’s figure skating like Dorothy Hamill in the 1976 Olympics. When I first saw these commercials, I thought, “…what a waste of money. Honda should stick to building great cars,” but as the years went on, and Asimo went from a clunky toy to something of shear engineering genius, I’ve come to appreciate the wisdom and the courage of the people behind Asimo.

What Asimo represents, that I believe we’ve somehow forgotten in America, is the long-term view. It wasn’t that long ago that we did great things here in America, we took risk to pursue what seemed like crazy dreams. Putting men on the moon, breaking the sound barrier, building crazy tall buildings, erected cities in the desert. These were all crazy ideas, but they were also great, because they represented big vision and a ton of courage.

As a society, we’ve gotten so caught up in the ‘today’, living in the moment, that I believe we’ve lost sight of the fact that big dreams take time, perseverance, courage, and commitment. Our society, and in particular, Wall Street and our public markets, demand immediate results. I believe this short-term returns-oriented mentality, when not balanced with a longer term view of investment and long-bets, will belittle what we’re capable of.

Listen to how Honda’s former President and CEO, Hiroyuki Yoshino, describes their vision of Asimo. There is a lot to be admired in these statements, especially considering the fact that they come from a leader within a public company.

More than 20 years ago, our engineers set out to make a contribution to society beyond our existing product lineup of cars, motorcycles and power equipment products. It was a big dream - some thought it was simply the stuff of science fiction - to create a humanoid robot that could walk on two legs and whose main purpose would be to help people, such as the elderly and others who were confined to a bed or a wheelchair. Ultimately, our efforts led to the creation of ASIMO, a humanoid robot, which stands for “Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility.”

“Our dream for the future was to create something that did not exist - an advanced humanoid robot capable of walking and operating where humans live and work. For Honda, the challenge itself was enough reason to pursue this dream.”

To me, all the recent turmoil in our financial markets is simply the next proof point that however it is that we’ve been running things isn’t working. Wall Street, and indeed I think America in general, has become too focused on short-term gains. It’s time to return to a longer view of contribution and value add. In another 10 to 20 years, Asimo might not appear so crazy. But he will exist only because people had the courage to do pursue something really outstanding.

Small steps, long-term outlook.

We all develop filters for the noise and clutter we encounter in every day life. These filters protect us, allow us to concentrate, and generally shield us from being bombarded.

In biology, there is a concept known as homeostasis. Homeostasis is the ability for the body to adjust what it considers ‘normal’ to the current conditions, giving it an ability to detect changes in those conditions.

If it’s hot, your body adjusts its normal state to account for the heat. It can then detect if it gets hotter or colder. The same holds true for light, sound, touch, taste and smell.

In business (and I’ve found this to be especially true with entrepreneurs), I’ve noticed that people have developed a sort of ‘are you serious’ filter when they hear a newbie entrepreneur describe how they are going to set the world on fire. While friends may be generally encouraging, they are also inherently skeptical. And why would you blame them? ‘Normal’ for them is to hear a lot of talk, but witness very little follow-through. We’ve all seen and heard of plenty of great ideas. But of all those great ideas, how many are ever acted upon? And of those that are actually acted upon, how many of those ideas are really, really pursued, through the inevitable hard times in any startup? The answer is, not many.

Life itself I believe has a way of really challenging the conviction of any great yet unimplemented idea.

It reminds me of a question Phil Becker asked me before he invested in Ping. Sitting in his living room, he asked me, “…are you really serious about this?” That was a wise question.

News of Cisco buying Jabber hit the street this morning. This is a really nice landing for the company and all of the employees of Jabber, as I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cisco as a company that really cares for its people.

Jabber was an incredibly fun (albeit short) ride for me personally, and it’s nice to see this really great technology along with all of the passionate and dedicated people achieve a great outcome.

Congratulations Jabber! Congratulations Cisco!