On my journey through life I am constantly on the lookout for ways I can make an impact. It’s not just figuring out better ways to make money, nor how much fun I can have, or even what the payoff is for me personally. Rather it’s what I can do to make the world a better place by adding my own intrinsic value in ways it will be multiplied.

When I took a risk and went off on my own in January to focus on Internet-as-a-platform and all the things driving the Web 2.0 meme, I started to ask myself one question: What does the world need that I can uniquely deliver? Whenever I think about what I should be doing, choices toward where I should be focusing my energy, or even where I invest, it all starts with that single question.

I’ve been fortunate to have had a really great high-tech career that spanned the microcomputer business all the way to the enterprise software space. It started when I was a manufacturer’s rep for Atari, migrated to selling this new computer company Apple’s stuff (I was in Hawaii in November of 1983 when Jobs introduced the Macintosh to the company) and ended with an incredible adventure at Vignette during the dotcom time and as VP of Strategic Alliances at Lawson Software. I’ve seen a lot, learned a lot, sold and marketed into virtually every type of distribution channel, learned more technology value propositions than anyone probably ever should, and built an intuitive understanding of failure and success.

So have I found an answer to my question about uniquely delivering value to the world?

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