What is marketing according to Brad Feld? - Focus on becoming a thought leader in your space. Talk everyday with your customers, perspective customers, partners, and the world about why you do what you do and why you think it is important.

In a recent Business Week article about Peter Thiel called Free Radical there are some good insights and things to think about.

• Peter works every day to reshape the world and focus on solutions to problems other people overlook.  Do you?
• The future is not an abstraction.  It's something we are all participants in, helping to create and forge and shape.  Are you participating in it?
• When he started Paypal the business side of the company was secondary to the vision.  When you look opportunities are you trying to solve a big problem or looking to make money?
• In reference to education - People can't do anything entrepreneurial or innovative or even non-profit - anything that's not safe and well-paying - because they have this mountain of debt.  And so education is something that has become a retardant to technological innovation and progress, even though the common perception is the exact opposite.  Do you fall into this category?
• Peter states: "Only 35 out of 535 members of congress have any background in science or technology.  That's why I believe the government thing is hard to fix - the people there don't actually believe these are important problems.  Maybe the answer would be to change the other 500 people and replace them with engineers.  But then you're not really talking about a practical option."  How do we get more science and technology people into congress?

Some good things to think about and questions to try and answer...

Are you passionate about what you do?

or do you and the people that you work with have the attitude described by Seth Godin below:

Fred has a great post about being present. 

My favorite lines: 

Being present in a relationship, whether it is with your kids, your spouse, or anyone important in your life is hard work, particularly for overstimulated type A personalities like me and many of the people who read this blog. 

Around that time, I attended an offsite of a larger private equity firm and there was a organizational psychologist who gave a talk on work life balance. He said something I'll never forget. He said that you have about ten to twelve years to connect with your kids and then they turn into teenagers, tune you out, then turn into adults and build their own lives. I thought about my kids who were five, three, and a baby and realized that time was short and I needed to be present in their lives in every way that I could.