Please note that I made no effort to contact either side nor I am even saying that any of these theories are true.  This was more a thought exercise for myself to view the acquisition from multiple perspectives.

1.  Everything was premeditated -  They were getting pressure from investors, so they created a guise that they were trying to work out a monetization strategy. They knew that it wasn’t profitable/scalable enough to what the company was valued at and that Yahoo or another big whale would swoop in and try to buy them thinking that their revenue potential was higher than it really was. This way David Karp has satisfied investors, has a hands off approach from Yahoo, and can keep working on the product and keep the users happy, which is what matters most to him.

2.  Failed attempt at monetizing – They figured it was time to try to make money.  They brought in Barbarian Group founder Rick Webb to help them develop the products that were authentic to the community and figure out what the strategy would be sell them to brands.  They hired brand strategists and sales people to work with brands to get them on the platform and buying into their unique advertising.  They gave of valiant effort to make this work, but came to the realization that the revenue wasn’t scalable enough juxtapose to what they were spending and figured they HAD to sell.  In comes Yahoo and the rest is history.

3.  Buying Back Their Cool - Yahoo hasn’t been cool…well…ever.  They have a history of buying companies and letting them rot or lose their competitive edge in the marketplace.  In their minds, Tumblr is their chance to gain back what they think they’ve lost since the days they were head to head with AOL as a battling web giant.  We’ll see if that’s even possible.

4.  Secret Plans – The last is that we’re not privvied to some bigger plans for their partnership that will blow our minds. Yahoo is opening a NYC office.  They have potential plans to integrate Tumblr and Flickr.  This is the biggest purchase of 6 other companies in the past year.  Hopefully there’s some bigger strategy for Yahoo.  If not, they’re dumber than I thought.

Whatever the truth might be, we probably won’t know for a while.  Regardless, $1.1B is a lot of money and I’m sure both sides have the opinion that they came out ahead.

The main insight I gained from his 40 lessons on entrepreneurship is that there is a value from learning by doing.  Too many people wait for the right moment, wait for funding, or wait until they find someone who has a skill/connections that they don’t (i.e. design, development, business, etc).  Derek taught himself how to code and built CD Baby from a buy button on his personal website to it evolving into an independent musician sales platform that inevitably sold.

I respect that perspective.

One of the first lessons I learned by doing was when I was working at Ropeadope Records out of college.  I noticed an obvious correlation between album sales and touring.  As a result, I took it upon myself to start booking the artists and thus I became an agent. I had no previous skills or experience.  I just did it.

Anything I have learned, I have done by doing.  It’s exciting to not to be afraid to make mistakes.  It frees you and teaches you something in a way no classroom could.

Medeski Martin Wood with special guest Nels Cline – Blue Note – I usually don’t rank anything, but this was the best show I saw in 2012.  It was 75-minutes of improvised jazz fusion.  Nels can get weird with MMW, but he can also shred and lock in on one of their grooves.  Every section of their set was a complete surprise.  In short, they need to record together.

Wilco – Celebrate Brooklyn – My fifth Wilco show.  Easily the best one I’d seen.  The aforementioned Nels adds so much to this group as well.  This particular show was a nice mix of their entire catalog.  It didn’t get too weird, too country, or too rock.  Plus at $40 a ticket, I felt I got my moneys worth with 2 hours of amazing songs.

Alabama Shakes – Roseland Ballroom – I’m just going to throw it out there.  The fans that night were the worst to the point where I left Jack White’s set about 30 minutes in.  That was exacerbated by the fact that the Shakes went on over an hour after their intended set time.  However, they CRUSHED it.  Of the 6 times I’ve seen them, that was easily the best.  The energy was there.  The room was packed with all eyes on them.   And they delivered beyond my expectations that night.

Fiona Apple – Music Hall of Williamsburg – First time seeing her.  Nearly impossible to get tickets, but I called in a favor to make it happen.  She could have used a steak or five to bulk up from her 80 pound current weight, but her energy, passion, stage presence, and 97% of her voice were still there.  It was such a treat to be there with 500 people.  That will probably never happen again.

Shuffle Culture – Brooklyn Academy of Music – I had no clue what to expect other than seeing that Reggie Watts, Deer Hoof, Questo, and a cast of other random musicians would be sharing the stage.  The reality was that the music seamlessly jumped from classical to jazz to rock to hip-hop and every combination in between.  No slow points.   Even better, I was quoted in Rolling Stone.

Squarepusher – Webster Hall – I bailed on SXSW just to see Squarepusher.  This guy doesn’t record new records ever and doesn’t tour half as much.  This time around, he was doing both and I had to go.  I’m a long time fan of his jazzy bizarro drum n bass.  What I saw was 80 minutes of intense, in your face music and bright flashing lights coming from everywhere including his mask.  Check that off my bucket list concerts.

Ben Sollee – Backyard Brunch Sessions – Ben and I have been friends since I first tried to get him to perform almost 3 years ago.  I was very happy to get the message from him that it could work last minute.  The show was moved indoors because of weather.  The AC was turned off because it was too loud, so we were treated to two sets (with a water/AC break between) of new songs and requests of older songs.  You can check out a video here and download the whole performance here.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band – McKittrick Hotel – I have been to New Orleans a handful of time and every time I went I always made a point to go check Preservation Hall.  The staff of Sleep No More turned their upstairs lounge into a makeshift New Orleans bar with two stages.  Preservation played two sets of music with guest performers and burlesque dancers.  They are doing this residency again, so don’t miss out!

Sigur Ros – Mann Music Center – Sigur Ros is easily in my top 10 bands ever.  I still buy all their records, which I can’t say about many other bands.  They don’t tour ever, so I try to catch them as often as I can.  This was their first show in 4 years.  You could slightly tell this was the case, but even on their “off” nights, they’re still better than most bands on their best.  I look forward to seeing them again at MSG.

Andrew Bird (solo, duo and trio) – Riverside Church – If you get past the kitchy whistling, you find a very creative, quirky musician who makes sounds I never knew existed from a violin.  This show in particular was a part of his Gezelligheid solo series.  The church was BEAUTIFUL.  The sound was acoustically perfect.  His performance was warming, relaxing, but never a dull moment as he shifted between electric and acoustic with a guest bassist and guest vocalist/guitarist.

Honorable Mention:  Crossing Brooklyn Ferry featuring Buke and Gase, St. Vincent, and The Antlers – Brooklyn Academy of Music – Second time seeing St. Vincent.  First time for both Buke and Gase and The Antlers.  All three exceeded expectations and amazing to have all three for the same price of admission.  The highlight though was St. Vincent dropping her guitar to sing an old punk song in the audience and continue to finish the song off whilst crowd surfing.

As I was reading, one line caught my interest

He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.

That’s an interesting and thought provoking concept to consider. The most bizarre aspect of that reality is whether or not that person whose dream it is knows it’s a dream? I then began to think about something even crazier. Yes I make choices and define which path I take on daily basis, but I’m never in control over the environment around me and sometimes even make choices I know are wrong, so maybe my life is someone else’s lucid dream where they dictate the outcome. I highly doubt it (even though I’ll never know for sure), but it’s crazy mind game nonetheless.

One is expensive, highly caloric, and eaten in small quantities on infrequent occasions (if you’re lucky to afford it).  The other is cheap, highly caloric, and guzzled by most of the population. The process for one is highly controversial making animal rights activist livid.  The process for the other is a chemical manipulation of partially artificial ingredients.  However, not giving people the freedom to choose is a dangerous road to walk down whether it’s soda or goose liver.  Instead of injecting a bureaucratic fix into society, government should focus on decreasing the demand and desire to overindulge.

Look at Europe.  On whole there’s two sizes of soda:  330ML and 1 L.  However, there aren’t laws preventing companies from making whatever size they want.  The population controls the demand, which the companies comply and don’t feel the need to stray.  Why can’t this happen in US?

I drink soda and I am fortunate enough to eat fois gras every so often, but I do so with balance.  I have self-restraint and also make time to exercise.  However, would I ever in my right mind think a Big Gulp is a single serving?  NO.  So this law actually doesn’t effect me and shouldn’t bother me, but it does and this is why.  Never in my adult life have I been pro anything that prohibits someone from making a choice that only effects their body.

Outside of the ambiguity of health vs freedom, I’m curious if our movie tickets will go up to $20 by the end of the year since inflated soda prices account for a decent portion of their profit???

When a friend or someone I’m doing business with makes that excuse, I think to myself one or more of the following:

1. I wasn’t as important as whatever else they’re doing
2. They’re just using that to cover their laziness
3. They can’t manage their time at all
4. They’re not responsible enough to own up to the truth whether it’s 1-3 or something else.

So please…don’t ever make an excuse that you’re busy. Everyone’s busy.

The sellers stand to gain the most from his platform and nothing he ever will do for the seller will be at a disadvantage to the buyer, so his choice was obvious.

With any issue or question he has, he has to think how the solution or answer will effect the customer (the seller).  He then went on to explain the following analogy:  Facebook’s customers are the advertisers, so they have priority over the users.  Think about how much access the advertisers have to user data yet because they Facebook keeps adding features that improve their experience, they let it slide or just don’t know the extent.  It’s an interesting balance he’ll try to make with his company.

That being said, if you have an idea you’re looking to make into an actual company, it’s important to ask yourself, “who are your customers?”  A lot of the other decisions you need to make extend from there.

If you acted on all your ideas, you wouldn’t get any sleep and likely wouldn’t be able to succeed at any of of them.  Be responsible and focus on one.

One shows determination, dedication, and drive.  However, that’s not to say that the others aren’t good ideas or that you can’t revisit them another day or you can’t relay them to someone trustworthy who can kickstart execution on your behalf.

What’s your one that you’ve been dying to work on?

Once you head down that road, you’ll feel a combination of frustration, depression, satisfaction, regret, relief, failure, numbness, and disappointment.  In the long run, even the positive sentiment will disappear once you inevitably increase your comparative expectations.

Instead, focus your energy on yourself.

A few insights I’ve gained from the film that are worth sharing:

1. Struggle sparks growth – When things maintain the status quo there may be a sense of comfort, but that’s balanced with mixed levels of boredom, lack of creativity, and feeling unfulfilled.  People need to go against the grain in order to struggle.  It’s this struggle that yields personal and/or professional growth.
2. Routine isn’t your enemy – Everyday Jiro had a routine that’s enabled him to improve the overall dining experience of his patrons who pay 30,000 yen or more (approx $378) for a meal.  When you do something over and over again, you become an expert and can identify voids and improvements in that task.  Your mind may want to fight the urge, but that has more to do with ignorance and inability to focus than the feeling of premature readiness.  This concept of routine plays on the 10,000 Hours concept Malcolm Gladwell mentioned in Outliers.
3. People should be more aware of what goes into their food – Jiro believes that the best food comes from the best ingredients and I wholeheartedly agree.  If his son Yoshikazu didn’t spend hours at the fish market to work with the best distributors and select every piece of fish they serve that day, I doubt they’d be as good.
4. Is perfection attainable and would you know it if you got there – Jiro seemed to be an unsatisfied person, which is a blessing and curse.  He constantly pushes himself and his staff to maintain a perpetually increasing standard of preparation, execution, and presentation.  He’s the anti-entrepreneur’s entrepreneur because he’s all about creating food as close to perfection as possible with money being the least of his concerns.

All in all, it was the best documentary I’ve seen since Exit Through The Giftshop (which I covered two years ago here).  Definitely recommend catching it in a theater near you.