“You’re a man. Dress like one.” It’s the awesome baseline of Saboteur, a new clothes brand. They sell taylored jackets and shirts. It’s simple, classy and elegant.
Reminds me of this Barney Stinson quote: “Suit up!”
Via Bits (NY Times).
Don’t be sorry.
Here’s one of the things I’m wondering. When I meet someone, we often talk about my origins (I’m from Laos), and it ends up with something like that:
- Where are you from?
- From France.
- No, I mean, your origins?
- Oh, Laos.
- Great, have you already been there?
- Never.
- Don’t you have family there?
- I’ve been adopted actually.
- Oh, sorry (getting embarrassed and moving on another topic…)
This one last sentence is the one I don’t get. Why are people sorry every single time I tell them this “story”?
Sorry for not knowing my biological parents? Sorry for being educated by total strangers? Well, I’ll tell you what. A couple (or, maybe it’s just a woman) abandon me like cowards and you’d be less sorry if I lived with these parents?
Truth is, I’ve had the best parents any kid could have dreamed. They reached the perfect balance between severity and freedom for making me grow up the right way. They succeed at a task a lot of people fail: taking good care of their child. Now there’s no reason for you to be sorry about that, right?
So, next time you’ll meet another adopted people, think twice before saying you’re sorry!
Note: Please don’t use this picture, it’s a really personal memory.
By Bastien, August 4th, 2010. 2 comments.
When bookmarks made sense.
I’ve never really been into bookmarks, even if this feature in web browsers was implemented years ago. I guess even Mosaic had bookmarks.
Truth is, I’ve always blamed bookmarks for not being efficient. I’m a keyboard guy. The less I use my mouse/touchpad, the more I use my keyboard to do stuff, and, the more I’m happy. I guess this is the way I’ve been raised, I’m a Mac guy, I grew up with keyboard shortcuts, and they’re so efficient. So why would I waste time grabbing my mouse and moving it to be able to click on what I want, when I just can type a URL much more faster with my cmd + L shortcut? For sure, autocompletion features helped with this choice, too.
I’m bookmark free since 1998. And I’m happy with not having any bookmarks on my computer.
But a few years ago, a revolution happened: touch interfaces, iPhone, and more recently iPad. Thing is, I don’t like to move my fingers to another device, and I think it’s a waste of time. But with an iPhone or an iPad for instance, there’s only one real device, which mixes the keyboard, the mouse, and the screen. So now, it becomes much more efficient when you have bookmarks, since you don’t have to move your hand/fingers a lot. They’re just one touch away, while it’s a much more complicated process to reach a bookmark on a classic computer
And I really thank Apple for this. Because thanks to their touch devices, now I see the real value of bookmarks.
Photo credit: Dave Crosby
By Bastien, July 21st, 2010. 2 comments.
My friend the entrepreneur.
As some of you may know, I’m back in my parents’ house for a couple of weeks. A few days ago, I ran into a friend of mine I haven’t seen for a long time. We both were in the same kindergarten school. The reason he was at my house? He’s actually my dad’s gardener.
This guy isn’t really smart. No offense, really, what I mean is that he’s not Sheldon Cooper or Albert Einstein, he didn’t go to college, and I’m not even sure he went to high school. But the thing is, this man is now an entrepreneur. Gardening is a dirty job, it’s a lot of hard and manual work, with sometimes hard work conditions (rain, hot temperatures, etc.). I have to admit something, I admire him. The fact that he is running his own company makes me have a huge respect for him.
We didn’t share a lot about his entrepreneur experience, but here some key things about entrepreneurship.
The client number of my father is number 0001. The very first one (it’s actually very weird when you see that on your bill). He gave him a chance without knowing if he was good or not. He didn’t have any experience before working at my house. The only reasons he hired him were because I knew him, and because my dad usually prefers to support local economy.
My friend is a hard worker. He does a great job. So, my father recommended him to his clients and his friends networks, so that he could have more clients to work with. This is why your network matters. It helps you grow your business.
I strongly believe that if you do a great job, there is only one issue: you succeed. And someday I’d like to be an entrepreneur.
In my French playlist.
I’d like to share with you a few French songs from my playlist. Since some readers are not French native speakers, I thought it would be interesting to share some French music. I know some of the songs may sound ridiculous, but whatever. What about you, what’s in your playlist?
Claire Denamur – In the mood for l’amour
Joyce Jonathan – Je ne sais pas
Izia – Let me alone
Cœur de Pirate – Pour un infidèle
By Bastien, June 9th, 2010. 3 comments.