Not a whole lot came of out of this article for me on the amount of risk an entreprenuer faces with a start-up, but I did like this one bit.

In my opinion, based on limited experience, to start a successful company you need to have (…) the belief that the non-monetary satisfaction you get along the way will more than compensate for the financial disadvantages

I need to remind myself of this bit on self-ownership. Especially the part about not apologizing for pursuing. I find many doubters but have to remember that I’m doing something to be my own man, not someone else’s.

The sense of self-ownership manifests itself in the kind of total autonomy that leads us to say of someone: “He is his own man.” It involves a commitment to one’s own happiness as a true end-in-itself—not something one has to apologize for pursuing, not something that one may enjoy only on condition that it serves some other end. It involves the ability to experience happiness without any tendril of guilt at having succeeded. It involves a sense that the only person one answers to, ultimately, is oneself.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Facebook lately. There’s definitely an aspect of it I like – knowing what everyone is up to without having to put too much effort in emailing or (worse) picking up the phone. Having said that, there is an aspect I am really finding to be disturbing – and, unfortunately I’m having a hard time putting to words what it is I despise. The best way I can put it is that I don’t like knowing what some people are up to, but I don’t have any reason not to be their “friend”.

This research piece is the closest thing I’ve read to capturing some of what I’ve been thinking (er, I should say it spurred my thoughts versus capturing, anyway). Basically, I believe that there is a tremendous amount of influence within certain aspects of all these friends we have. However, I think there is a negative aspect that people aren’t considering. A couple of thoughts I lifted from the article follow.

“How we feel, what we know, whom we marry, whether we fall ill, how much money we make, and whether we vote all depend on the ties that bind us.”

…

Controlling for environmental factors and the tendency of birds of a feather to flock together—happy people prefer hanging out with other happy people—Christakis and Fowler found that we really do emulate those we care about, whether we mean to or not. Being connected to a happy person, for instance, makes you 15 percent more likely to be happy yourself.

I’ve really been considering deleting my facebook account. I’ve got a number of other online personas (www.joshpremuda.com/about has most of them, but my internet handle is usually ‘joshpremuda’, so start there) where you can see what I’m up to, so the need for another outlet is minimal unless facebook is the only place people track me.

For a bit of an experiment, I only checked facebook once this past week (gasp!) and frankly, I didn’t miss it. I get my information from elsewhere. So, now I’m really wondering what value I’m getting from it. Do I keep it because I’m providing value to others?

Facebook seems to be on a slippery slope. I feel like it could be very unhealthy to check up on ex’s, stalk someone you just met, or just get obsessed with seeing what everyone is up to.

Thoughts?

Great advice (on happiness) to remember. And, a reason to maybe delete my facebook account.

The happiest people seem to be very focused on whatever they are doing. Unhappy people seem to be very focused on what other people are doing.

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.

–George Burns

A pretty interesting NPR piece arguing why being sad may be a good thing.