LegendaryLife Blog

The founder of GoDaddy has had tremendous success online as a domain registrar, he risked everything he earned from the sale of his company Parsons Technology, turning his 64 million dollar buyout to what will soon be a billion dollar company. Without further ado, here is his top 10 keys (suggestions) for success in 2008.

10: Never listen to advertising experts

The reason for GoDaddy’s success is doing everything that it was told not to do by agencies, the more people say you shouldn’t do something, the more you should do it. People generally fear change, they don’t want to make waves so becoming an agent of change is the only way to get any type of attention no matter your field.

9: Surround yourself with beautiful, intelligent and successful women

Half of the world’s population is female yet if you attend enough board meetings, you will quickly realize that these statistics don’t hold true in the executive world (sadly). I would easily argue that women are our smarter half and a company without at least 50% of the top management that isn’t one is missing out on huge opportunities.

8: Take care of your employees and give to charity

Employees leave a company because of stress but if you provide a good working environment that is fun, challenging and rewarding, even at lower pay then a competitor, they will stay with you. Charity is also always a great thing, once you can afford to do so.

7: It’s never too late to get a motorcycle but always wear your safety gear

I got my motorcycle license a few years back, the freedom that you experience driving on the road is tremendous, cars are so boxed that I got to the point where I actually hated being inside of one. Driving a motorcycle gives you instant feedback about the environment, the flexibility to move on a dime and just pure pleasure of the open road… something lost in cars and trucks.

6: Earn a Ph.D. in International Relations so you can become the head of ICANN

A degree is only worth as much as you do with it, ICANN is just about the most useless organization out there, they are experts at conducting meetings in exotic locations that produce absolutely nothing. Each time somebody registers a domain, they send a few cents to these guys who wine and dine on our efforts and provide anything but leadership or vision for the online industry.

5: Figure out what “Brad” does in GoDaddy

An inside joke but if you have an employee or somebody who really serves no value to your company, no matter your affiliation, time to let them go unless you can afford to do otherwise. Same goes with software and hardware, if it doesn’t have a use, then there is no purpose in supporting it any longer.

4: Figure out what “Yahoo” actually does

Yahoo use to be known as a search engine, now it’s morphed into a huge conglomerate but unlike General Electric, they are experts at buying up overpriced companies then shutting them down. They lack a vision, purpose and to be quite frank, are headed for the same fate as AOL… oblivion.

3: Let the devil within you come out every once in a while

Living life on the straight and narrow is nice but it’s good to get out of your shell or comfort zone every once in a while. When was the last time you did something crazy? If you can’t remember, time to do it again.

2: Never, ever, buy a Zune

Hmmm… let me see, Microsoft is an expert at creating loss leaders, they have the Xbox franchise which looses money hand over fist, more software packages then I can count which do little but offer pale imitations of other software products and are sitting on a huge pile of cash. Microsoft has their operating system (XP) that is their backbone and Office, otherwise, everything else has been a dismal failure… why? Well, they got too much money and I think they fear loosing it, so instead of making waves inside of new industries, they are stuck taking cautious approaches towards everything… which leads to mediocrity. If you aren’t in an industry to shake it up, don’t go into it… the Zune (so far) is no different. Let me put this another way, if you own stock in Microsoft, how much has it grown over the past few years compared to a company that does take chances such as Google?

1: Be Godaddy’est in everything you do

The definition of Godaddy’est is simply the ability to live on the fine edge between decency and absurdity. It’s a fine line between being labeled a mad man vs a crazy man, if you live your life on that edge, sometimes you get burned but more often then not, you will progress faster. Take chances, take risks and more importantly, enjoy the trip while it lasts.

The Bottom Line

Follow your gut, more often then not, it will prove right.

Buzvia: GoDaddy,  GoDaddy Radio, Bob Parsons Personal Site, ZipitLive: GoDaddy Reseller

I believe we do our entire planet wrong by not realizing how vast the sandbox we all reside in actually is. There is an entire universe, across endless dimensions that evolves at it’s own rhythm completely out of our control and most peoples thoughts. To the universe, our entire solar system has even less value then we place on the the bacteria that lives under our toe nails… harsh? Well, this is the reality that most of us ignore to acknowledge and accept.

The value of life in the universe

If you look at enough images from outer space, even looking up at the stars, you cannot help but be overwhelmed not only at the grand scale of things but at it’s mind boggling vastness. Can you even imagine how far the distance of 15 billion light years actually is or even how a million years is simply a blink in the eye of the universe? It’s absolutely incredible! The moon spins around the earth, the solar system around the sun and if you go large enough, our entire solar system, one of billions, simply rotates around an enormous black hole that is in the middle of our galaxy. All this happens everyday regardless of whether life exists or not. To the universe, a rock is has the same value as life, absolutely none. It doesn’t care, it has no consciousness nor reason for being, it simply is.

Astronomy pictures of the Day

NASA and JPL release a picture of the day on their site, illustrating the beauty of the universe we are lucky enough to inhabit and igniting the imagination as to what could be, here are a few great pictures to expand your mind.

A Beautiful Boomerang Nebula
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team, J. Biretta (STScI) et al., (STScI/AURA), ESA, NASA

This symmetric cloud dubbed the Boomerang Nebula was created by a high-speed wind of gas and dust blowing from an aging central star at speeds of nearly 600,000 kilometers per hour. The rapid expansion has cooled molecules in the nebular gas to about one degree above absolute zero – colder than even the cosmic background radiation – making it the coldest known region in the distant Universe. Shining with light from the central star reflected by dust, the frigid Boomerang Nebula is believed to be a star or stellar system evolving toward the planetary nebula phase. This Hubble image was recorded using polarizing filters (analogous to polaroid sunglasses) and color coded by the angle associated with the polarized light. The gorgeous result traces the small dust particles responsible for polarizing and scattering the light. The Boomerang Nebula spans about one light year and lies about 5,000 light years away toward the constellation Centaurus.

The Strange Trailing Side of Saturn’s Iapetus
Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

What has happened to Saturn’s moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark as coal, while others are as bright as ice. The composition of the dark material is unknown, but infrared spectra indicate that it possibly contains some dark form of carbon. Iapetus also has an unusual equatorial ridge that makes it appear like a walnut. To help better understand this mysterious moon, NASA directed the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn to swoop within 2,000 kilometers just last month. Pictured above, from about 75,000 kilometers out, Cassini’s trajectory allowed unprecedented imaging of the hemisphere of Iapetus that is always trailing. A huge impact crater seen in the south spans a tremendous 450 kilometers and appears superposed on an older crater of similar size. The dark material is seen increasingly coating the easternmost part of Iapetus, darkening craters and highlands alike. Close inspection indicates that the dark coating typically faces the moon’s equator. Whether Iapetus’ colors are the result of unusual episodes of internal volcanism or external splattering remains unknown. This and other images from Cassini’s Iapetus flyby are being studied for even greater clues.

Sun Storm: A Coronal Mass Ejection
Credit: SOHO Consortium, ESA, NASA

What’s happening to our Sun? Another Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)! The Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft has imaged many erupting filaments lifting off the active solar surface and blasting enormous bubbles of magnetic plasma into space. Direct light from the sun is blocked in the inner part of the above image, taken in 2002, and replaced by a simultaneous image of the Sun in ultraviolet light. The field of view extends over two million kilometers from the solar surface. While hints of these explosive events, called coronal mass ejections or CMEs, were discovered by spacecraft in the early 70s, this dramatic image is part of a detailed record of this CME’s development from the presently operating SOHO spacecraft. Near the minimum of the solar activity cycle CMEs occur about once a week, but near solar maximum rates of two or more per day are typical. Strong CMEs may profoundly influence space weather. Those directed toward our planet can have serious effects.

Massive Stars in Open Cluster Pismis 24
Credit: NASA, ESA and J. M. Apellániz (IAA, Spain).

How massive can a normal star be? Estimates made from distance, brightness and standard solar models had given one star in the open cluster Pismis 24 over 200 times the mass of our Sun, making it a record holder. This star is the brightest object located just to the right of the gas front in the above image. Close inspection of images taken recently with the Hubble Space Telescope, however, have shown that Pismis 24-1 derives its brilliant luminosity not from a single star but from three at least. Component stars would still remain near 100 solar masses, making them among the more massive stars currently on record. Toward the image left, stars are still forming in the associated emission nebula NGC 6357, including several that appear to be breaking out and illuminating a spectacular cocoon.

Earth at Night
Credit: C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/NGDC, DMSP Digital Archive

This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find your favorite country or city? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight particularly developed or populated areas of the Earth’s surface, including the seaboards of Europe, the eastern United States, and Japan. Many large cities are located near rivers or oceans so that they can exchange goods cheaply by boat. Particularly dark areas include the central parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The above image is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the orbiting DMSP satellites.

Z Machine Sets Unexpected Earth Temperature Record
Credit: Z Machine Collaboration, Sandia National Lab, Lockheed Martin, NNSA, DOE

Why is this plasma so hot? Physicists aren’t sure. What is known for sure is that the Z Machine running at Sandia National Laboratories created a plasma that was unexpectedly hot. The plasma reached a temperature in excess of two billion Kelvin, making it arguably the hottest human made thing ever in the history of the Earth and, for a brief time, hotter than the interiors of stars. The Z Machine experiment, pictured above, purposely creates high temperatures by focusing 20 million amps of electricity into a small region further confined by a magnetic field. Vertical wires give the Z Machine its name. During the unexpected powerful contained explosion, the Z machine released about 80 times the world’s entire electrical power usage for a brief fraction of a second. Experiments with the Z Machine are helping to explain the physics of Solar flares, design more efficient nuclear fusion plants, test materials under extreme heat, and gather data for the computer modeling of nuclear explosions.

Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Star Shadows Remote Observatory

The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone. A deep exposure shows that the dark familiar shaped indentation, visible just below center, is part of a vast complex of absorbing dust and glowing gas. To bring out details of the Horsehead’s pasture, amateur astronomers at the Star Shadow Remote Observatory in New Mexico, USA fixed a small telescope on the region for over seven hours filtering out all but a very specific color of red light emitted by hydrogen. They then added the image to a full color frame taken over three hours. The resulting spectacular picture details an intricate tapestry of gaseous wisps and dust-laden filaments that were created and sculpted over eons by stellar winds and ancient supernovas. The Horsehead Nebula lies 1,500 light years distant towards the constellation of Orion. Two stars from the Orion’s Belt can be found in the above image.

The Bottom Line

We are surrounded by beauty, from the smallest living things to the largest. The price of entry is simply opening your eyes and mind to the possibilities that exists around us.

Buzvia: NASA Picture of the Day

One of my fondest memories growing up was watching home improvement shows on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. There is something fascinating about watching others fix, design and build things that never seems to get dull. In a half hour, a kitchen floor could be tiled and basic plumbing installed along with pot lights by a small crew of carpenters… usually right in the thick of it was Bob Vila!

Background Information about Bob Vila

During the 80s and 90s, there was no missing Bob Vila, he was everywhere it seems, from guest appearances on Tim Allen’s “Tool Time with Tim Taylor” to guest appearances on many other television shows and even starting in a series of his own series. It all began in 1946 when he was born into a Cuban family as Robert J. Vila in Miami, Florida. He later attended the University of Florida to receive a BS in Journalism followed by a stint at the Boston Architectural Center.

Bob Vila the businessman

Bob Vila traveled Europe for two years after receiving his BS in Journalism, after his studies at the Boston Architectural Center he began his own business renovating houses and designing living spaces for clients in the local Boston area. He enjoyed success in this endeavor and this lead to him receiving a number of awards.

Bob Vila’s co-hosting gig

After winning the “Heritage House of 1978” award from Better Homes and Gardens, Bob Vila was subsequently hired as a co-host of the popular show “This Old House” with Norm Abram, himself a very accomplished master carpenter. Norm had the gift of making everything look so damn easy to build and Bob Vila had the ability to make even the most mundane aspects of carpentry a must-see, together they where a fantastic combination. Bob Vila stayed with “This Old House” for 11 years before parting ways with Norm in 1989 to begin his own series, the cause of this legendary break-up is still a hotly debated topic. One rumor that seems to have the most legs is that Bob Vila was increasingly using the notoriety of the show to propel himself and this caused some friction with the producers, including Norm.

Bob Vila’s takes control

Whether by chance or planning, Bob Vila saw the writing on the wall after leaving “This Old House” and decided to begin his own show called “Bob Vila’s Home Again” whose popularity propelled him into popular culture stardom. He became the official spokesperson for anything “carpentry” related with Sears under the brand “Craftsman Tool” and the show had a catchy theme that showed entire home projects over multiple segments. I remember watching his shows vividly, especially one in which he was building a sunken greenhouse. It was odd because he always had the people who owned the house pay the work site a visit to show progress and to receive feedback but on this project, he never did this. It was later revealed by him that this was actually his house (he was the client), a nice personal touch that won him many fans. As his popularity peaked in the 90s, he wrote several books about architecture and home improvements. In 2005, he renamed his show “Bob Vila” and began selling his own brand of tools with himself being the personality behind them. He also produced “Guide to Historic Homes of America” and “In Search of Palladio” but they never reached the fame of his self-titled shows. He now the undisputed king of the home improvement empire, stretching his influence around the world that will last for generations to come.

Bob Vila the Humanitarian

Bob Vila has had a profound effect on the entire Home Improvement craze that swept the United States beginning in the 1990s, he enjoyed tremendous success but always gave back to both his fans and communities. He did a number of speaking gigs and gives a helping hand with a number of charities such as Habitat for Humanity, The Hemingway Preservation Foundation and even his very own foundation, aptly called the “Vila Foundation”. He is married and has three children.

The Bottom Line

Notice how Bob Vila became incredibly successful after he decided to take control over his destiny, there is no reason why you can’t do the same!

Buzvia: Bob Vila on Wikipedia, Bob Vila’s Official Site, NNDB’s Bob Vila Profile

I believe that if we all lived our lives like an open book, then we would better understand one another as hiding things from others simply breeds suspicion. We are all human, we all have emotions and everyday struggles. I am no different then anybody else in this world but I think memory fades with time, hence why I am recording this now. Two years ago now, my youngest sister died.

Summers by the pool

My most happy memory of the time I spent with my sister Dominique and my other sister Melanie was in our family pool during the summer months. In Canada we have two months break from school, a relic of our countries earlier harvesting days, which we always took full advantage of. It was the 1980s and early 1990s where, every summer, we would alternate from jumping off the diving board and roasting on the hot sun on the concrete slabs surrounding the pool. News of wearing sunscreen hadn’t hit the mass market yet so we where burnt like toast just about everyday, oddly enough, I don’t remember getting that many sunburns. Our complexion darkened to the point where even today, I am far darker then most of the people I have the pleasure of spending time with. We would have contests all summer long with my parents, drinking his cold water under the shade of the Oak tree right next to the pool talking. Who can hold their breath the longest, who can swim the most laps, who can make the biggest splash and the list went on. In hindsight, we where actually quite a bunch of competitive kids trying to best one another. The fact that I was a few years older then either of my sisters made no difference, we wanted to be better then the other. I remember we use to play a monster game where I, as the oldest, was the monster… I would make lots of splashes and they would have to go from one end of the pool to the other without me catching them. We also had a slide which provided hours of fun as well. It was really a great time for the entire family. We would always beg our parents to join us in the pool and usually they did later in the afternoon. I think the fact that we where all very young and ignorant of the world around us made that time that much better, we had no worries, no pressures nor much to think about during those summer months other then two straight months of playing. The summers are also when we would visit or be visited by our extended family, it was the one time year that everybody had time off to meet up. Summers have been special ever since.

Lessons two years on

Well, it’s been two years now, the emotions aren’t gone at all, nor would I want it any other way. I do have to credit my sisters death for putting the fire under my ass to make things happen faster then would have otherwise been. Facing mortality makes you realize that our time on this Earth is rather limited and can be taken away at any time. I decided long ago that I would not live a life of regrets, wishing I did this instead of that, trying to re-visit the past etc. , not sure where this came from but so far, it has served me very well. I live in two kinds of worlds as a result, one that is short term where I make key decisions right away, wasting as little time debating them as possible, taking steps immediately to make them become reality while the other is trying to plan out my future. Sometimes it’s difficult to decide where a decision goes though, long term or short but regardless, I waste as little time debating this as well. Live is about living it, trying to get as much out of it as possible before it’s taken away by your actions or those of somebody else.

The Bottom Line

Christmas is as much about celebration as reflection.

We are brought up by our society to aspire to the 9-5 lifestyle, so much so, that our entire educational system is established towards achieving this “goal”. Start a family after getting married and work for somebody else is how most people go through their entire life. I am here to tell you there are alternatives to this “normal”.

Religious Boundaries

I respect the role of religion in many peoples lives but the number one boundary that most people create within their mind is that imposed upon them by their religion. I believe religion was created by humans as a way of dealing with the dismal reality that not only do we not matter but there is no rhyme or reason for our existence. It must have began when we developed around the same time as our self-conscience. I am not saying religion is bad, quite the opposite, many people use religion as their moral backbone, but what I am saying is that if that religion closes off your mind about other possibilities, experiences and adventures then I think you need to re-evaluate your faith. Think about it, would a God create all of us to live a life that is but a fraction of what it could be? If I created a human, I would have given them the sense of adventure, exploration and an open mind… expecting them to eek out every second of their existence towards experiencing ALL their senses to the maximum. Not going into a house to worship me or to ask me constantly for my guidance. If I wanted mindless slaves, I would have created robots, but God instead created humans even it it means questioning their origins and significance. God gave us a mind, use it! God gave us a body, use it! God gave us life, LIVE IT! To do anything less then this I would take as an insult upon my creations. You don’t show your faith by going to church every Sunday, you don’t do it by spreading His word as he isn’t running in an election of any kind nor do you show it by living a life of limits, you show your faith by using everything He created you with. Believing is God is your choice, I am not here to convince you otherwise, but what I am saying is wouldn’t a God take more joy in a creation that was constantly expanding and questioning everything around them instead of this mindless obedience to doctrine? When you cease to question yourself and your beliefs, you begin shutting down your mind from other possibilities and this to me, is truly sad.

Societal Boundaries

Who told you that you must go to university in order to get a good paying job? Who told you that having a family is the only way towards achieving self-fulfillment? More importantly, who told you that you must dedicate the prime of your life working for somebody else? Society. Well, I am a citizen of the world, as such, I want to live all around the world, in different societies there are different internal compasses that reflect outward. If you where born in a Muslim Middle Eastern nomadic tribe then the expectations and ways towards achieving great success are very different then if you where born in the heart of New York. For the nomadic tribe, carrying salt tables by camel to and from the mines would be essentially how you would live out your life while for the New Yorker, living among millions of people all trying to get through yet another crazy day would be your fate. What am I saying? Well, in our own world, the self-perceived societal boundaries are incredibly flexible, you CAN change them. Sure, going against the grain will be hard, imagine being a nomadic tribesman wanting to move to New York and work in a brokerage firm on the 100th floor of a prestigious building… the odds are stacked against him but where there is a will, there will be a way. You, Me, Us, we all have the ability to modify societal beliefs and impositions (boundaries) at will, sadly, most of us never go beyond getting our toes wet.

Life’s Boundaries

Imagine a life where people where completely free to think, act and do as they wished, free from religious and societal boundaries… it’s either excessively Utopian or an absolute Hell depending on your pre-dispositional beliefs. You see the problem of living outside of boundaries is that others may do the same, which leads to a very scary scenario. My mind is “all there” but not everybody has the internal strength nor physical ability to deal with the pressures that living in a boundless life has. This breads guilt, envy, resentment for some while for others they become sources of inspiration, motivation and fulfillment. This would create two groups of people, with some cross-flow between them as we aren’t always in the same emotional, physical nor intellectual state throughout our lives. One group would become increasingly depressed and go into a downward spiral, incapable of living with the knowledge that they must create their own structure in life that, at the end of the day, meant nothing anyways. The other group would become increasingly euphoric, always trying to best one another by climbing the highest mountains faster, swimming deeper and so forth. Basically, being an extreme type A personality surrounded by other extreme type A personalities is no better then being and among type F personalities… the result is the same. Without fear, you don’t live a long life but with too much fear, you don’t get out to experience life neither. Either way, life without meaning begins and ends in the same manner regardless of how you choose to live it. This is why, we have religion and societal barriers that the vast majority of people live by as the alternative is simply too much to cope with.

The Bottom Line

Life without boundaries is as liberating as it’s frightning