October Ramblings

Photo credit: Deb Achak Photography

A few thoughts for today.

In business as well as in life, the one quality I always strive to be is memorable. I will never be as smart, as handsome, or as tall as others, but being memorable is a darn good way to go. I would argue that being remembered negatively is much better than never leaving an impression at all. Thus, even a controversial stand is better than no stand.

Dessert is a waste of time in my opinion. If you are still hungry after dinner, just get more short ribs or another burrito.

If you plan on traveling with toddlers, accept the fact that most plane flights will be tough. There really isn’t any way around it, since toddlers wish to stay in motion and planes wish to keep you from being in motion. Half of the people on your fight will smile and silently commiserate with you, and the other half will detest you. My one piece of advice is not to worry about it. If anyone is giving you an evil stare (you know who you are people), rest easy in the fact that you are probably ruining their flight. It makes flying much more fun that way.

I have never understood why Persian food has never been more widely adopted across America. Meat, rice, bread and salad. The food is as basic as it gets but still very flavorful. I would have thought more parts of the US would have embraced Persian cuisine by now.

The amount of innovation occurring in high tech in San Francisco right now is truly astounding. Each time I go down there I am blown away.

My favorite airport to change planes in is Denver International (DIA). It’s spacious, airy, possesses easy to access security lines and has a ton of excellent food options. On the other side, my least favorite airport is Seattle. If you have ever flown here, you know what I mean. Old carpeting, terrible North and South concourses, horrible food options outside of the main concourse area, consistently broken escalators, faulty parking payment machines, confusing security lines, late arriving bags due to incompetence, you get my drift. Each week I fly in and out of my home airport, and each week I am disappointed yet again. All you need to do is fly out of Portland (PDX) once to get a feel for how a real airport works. Until we get a real airport that actually works, we will never be viewed as a world class city in my opinion.

I recently attended 8 meetings in San Francisco in a day. I could not have accomplished it without Lyft (www.lyft.com). After taking BART from the airport to my first meeting, I then proceeded to take a Lyft from meeting to meeting. I could never have achieved this prior to peer-to-peer ride-sharing. If you have never tried Lyft, Sidecar or Uber, I recommend it. You will never view taxis the same afterwards. I made me really start to wonder how long taxis (or even rental car agencies) will continue to operate in their current iteration.

9 years old is an awesome age for kids. You can take them anywhere, they are quite self reliant and are open to new experiences. In addition, they actually want to be around you which I have heard is in direct contrast to how teenagers operate.

Finally, if you need an activity for kids around the age of 6, I recommend bowling. Especially in the winter.

Matthew Achak