making a difference. Justin Knabb's blog

The Book of Jobs

via www.economist.com

We are watching the Babe Ruth of the computer industry, before our eyes. Steve Jobs introduced Apple's latest and greatest marvel yesterday, the iPad. Just when you think we've reached the near-pinnacle with computing technology, innovation giants like Jobs keep the "wow factor" alive...

Villanova students still do well AND do good

via www.businessbecause.com

My friend forwarded me this nice blog post this morning. Villanova business students continue to not just do well, but DO GOOD. As a VSB alumnus, it's still exciting to be a part of this community that has built a nice niche-focus towards sustainable and humanitarian business opportunities.

I'm now looking forward to advising a Villanova service group that will head to Charleston, South Carolina for the first week of March. I was just placed on their team on Wednesday, and we'll be helping to build a Habitat for Humanity home over the course of one week.

Hope to blog more about this experience as it continues to develop...

2010 resolution: Slow down for success

via postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com

My friend Ken (who works in advertising in NYC) sent me this Fortune article last week. Like the famous Sen. Paul Tsongas quote goes, "No one ever sat on their deathbed and wished they had spent more time at work."

Not that this commentary suggests to work less... but it does suggest reducing one's information diet and other extraneous stuff (Charlie Rose Show EVERY night? Really?) and focus on doing more with less.

I'll add this to my 2010 resolutions. Not that my list was long to start with, of course...

Pandora

A reflection on human progress

 

I want to reflect on the idea of progress for a moment, but not before pulling out this (somewhat arbitrary) snapshot from my trip through Portugal.

So often, within in my mind, I keep returning to this moment on this very rock.  This was 2004, and I was proudly alone, just outside sleepy Salema on the Algarve coast, staring out in the endless Atlantic Ocean.  I sat there for about a half hour that day, intoxicated by the view, the solitude, and separation from society.

I feel the closest to God in these purely meditative moments.  To be still, to have a clear mind, to still be void of adult responsibility and burdensome obligations, to be in awe of my surroundings... it was a joyful yet fleeting moment to hold on to.  With college graduation just one year away, this was a moment I was fortunate to have, and a moment worth remembering.

Fast-forward a year later and, of course, the end of the innocence finally arrives.

It's hard to let go of that feeling of innocence, even several years later.  The hedonistic side of my mind begs for more spiritual and soft progress in my life, yet the pragmatic side begs for my attention to a sort of tangible, hard and definitive progress.  What that progress is, I continue to wonder about... as many people do, I imagine.  Am I meant to build another dime-a-dozen business?  Am I meant to one day enter politics and project my ideologies on to the world around me?  Am I meant to somehow turn my circle of influence into some (certainly unattainable) Utopia?

Before the pedestrian reader of this blog post wonders where the hell I'm going with this, I better introduce the essay that sparked my mind-journey for this afternoon.  Enter The Economist's Idea of Progress--a bold and ambitious essay that is immensely broad in scope.  From connecting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden all the way to George Orwell's 1984 dystopia, the writer(s) seeks to dissect the meaning from within all the cluttered ambitions we seem to be chasing.

While my mind will always stray back to that peaceful and empty beach in Portugal on that idle afternoon, the mission for progress--in so many different forms--is what I believe God desires for me to focus on.  It's truly incredible to think of our unique roles within this continuously evolving world.  For, as the essay spells out, we clearly seek progress in seemingly obvious forms: economically, morally, scientifically, etc.  Yet, as we continuously discover, progress is our yin and consequences are our yang.  While we grow, we lose our past.  New values substitute in for old ones.  New priorities weed out the old.  Progress supposedly leads to prosperity which leads to enlightenment.

Yet our own, personal definitions of what progress is, and what prosperity is, and what enlightenment is are all purely unique as well.  Certainly Justin Knabb and, say, Hu Jintao could not be further apart, for example.  Or Che Guevara and Ronald Reagan.  Or Charles Darwin and Thomas Merton. The questions will always remain: What really is progress, why are we determined to achieve it, and what progress truly is good and true and right?

The question will linger and linger, yet this guy's personal journey continues.  And somehow, I keep thinking it will ultimately, inevitably lead back to that gloriously empty moment alone with only God on that beach.

Update on Water for Waslala

I continue to help run Water for Waslala, where we work to provide clean drinking water for people in extreme need living in Waslala, Nicaragua.  One of the best parts of serving as the charity's treasurer is receiving donations in the mail.  Every so often, a few come across my desk that are extremely touching.  One such donation came to me last week, and I wrote about it on my recent blog post on our charity's blog:  Small, giant hearts

Back from hibernation?

As I start writing my first blog post since 7/16 (from at least this current year), I think back to what our company's advertising consultant told me a few years ago.  "Be careful if you commit to a regular schedule for publishing," he said.  "Life always seems to get in the way, trust me."

Life happens, true.  I guess I also always feel the need to express something profound, original, etc.  But I need to remember why I chose to blog in the first place, and that is to simply keep a time capsule of my life.

I have been so pleased with the direction of my life lately.  Most notably, I have been dating a truly wonderful girl named Jill.  Since we started dating in late July (ironically the last time I wrote anything on this site?), we've really been on a fun ride together.  We are so similar in values, our spirituality, optimism, and some of the most important aspects that I believe a relationship should have.  But she continues to teach me a lot about life, herself, and even myself.  She's always a huge support to me, she has a beautiful family, and she actually finds my jokes funny, so I'll definitely be keeping her around for a while :) 

The overall world economy is still sluggish, and our business and industry are certainly still feeling the effects.  From the moment I wake up each day to the moment I go to bed, the future of our business is on my mind.  Will manufacturing in the United States soon, if ever, recover?  Will I have a legitimate chance to create the wealth I've hoped to build in this type of business?  And will I find myself running a business that I'm truly proud of and can't wait to walk into each day?

As some say, running a small business is one of life's greatest lessons.  There are rarely straight paths to where you want to go.  At the same time, I haven't been putting forth the effort that I've always demanded of myself for success.  I commit to reinvigorating my desire to forge a path into new, possible opportunities for us.

Hopefully I'll be posting some good news on here earlier than another 4 months from now...

Happy 20th birthday Tyler!

Dear Tyler,

I hope this note finds you well in Peru.  Before I forget to mention, please do your big bro a favor and call and/or write... if nothing else, just to confirm that you are alive and well.  Thanks :)

It's hard to articulate how proud I am of all your outstanding, remarkable, epic (I could continue with superlatives) accomplishments over this past year.  As I told you before, you are the Comeback Kid of the Year... of the Decade!  I believe the human spirit has the capacity to transform itself in astounding ways.  However, every so often, the rare person's inner spirit comes to life in a way that is truly combustible, creative, contagious.

And without a doubt, that is you.  For a young man who was almost on the bubble to even attend college... getting accepted into Johns Hopkins, serving the poor in Haiti and Peru, heading to Spain this Fall, and signing with the US Army ROTC... you have truly overcome all odds and set yourself on a course to make a real difference in the world.

Mom would be so proud.  She's no doubt looking down on you today and smiling that bright-eyed smile. 

Of course, you and I will forever be members of this dubious club of people that lost a parent a young, tender age.  Furthermore, I will never quite appreciate how you truly feel that she happened to pass away on your birthday.  I imagine that it's a sort of tough and sobering cloud lingering overhead.  However, do remember that your birthday is as much your day as it was a day that Mom's unconditional love for you came to fruition 20 years ago.  She chose to give you life, to love you and nurture you, and in that sense, July 16 will always be a cause for celebration.  For you, for our family, and for Mom.

Life has been very, very good to us.  We are blessed to have each other.  We are blessed to have our needs provided for.  We are blessed to have a bright future ahead.

With God's help, and much sweat and determination, we'll reach the mountaintop.  I hope that you might one day realize your dream to be a great doctor.  I hope that you and I see much of the world.  I hope that you meet a great woman and have a family of your own to be proud of.  But the journey along the way to these milestones will be the real beauty of the journey.  I really believe that.

Continue to enjoy the small gestures of gratitude and love in all that you meet throughout Cuzco.  Admire the way that God has painted the world-- the way the sun rises between the mountains of Cuzco in the morning, and the way civilization has so stunningly filled up within the valley of the region.  Continue to take in all the sights, the sounds, the smells.  Enjoy it all.  It's life outside your comfort zone, and that's ironically where life ultimately becomes the most comforting.

I hope that you have a great time today, Tyler.  Have a cerveza and dance the night away.

And remember to call me.

Love you very much.  Su hermano guapo,

Justin

The network/chronicle/time-capsule grows some more

Going against the grain of my last post, I'm actually diving deeper into cyberspace/nerd-land.

I set up a Twitter account to document cool things I find at arbitrary times in 140 characters or less.  And to follow other important people, too, like Carrot Top.

I also believe in the grassroots platform that Yelp.com provides.  My profile can be found here, although I can't promise you'll always agree with my impeccable, great tastes.

As I like to point out often, one of the great bonuses of these Internet/cloud-based social platforms lies in the phenomenal way that they all document our lives.  Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, Webshots, and this blog are all ways that I can document my life and one day, on a rainy day, perhaps look back and reflect and re-live the glory days.

This is the new scrapbooking, and it's much, much easier to create and share... and I don't get glue or magic marker all over my hands.  Thanks to all the hardworking geeks around the globe for making this stuff happen.  Let's just all hope they can all stay cashflow positive so they don't pull the plug one day.  Keep the capital flowing fellas... thanks! :)

Still getting used to social media

It's been about a decade since I first started using the Internet.  I embrace it, I benefit from it, I take advantage of it... but it's still overwhelming.  This new ocean of much-saturated information... populated with millions of so-called experts... navigating through all the hype, spin, and everything-realtime... well, it will probably always be this way.

I'll never forget the day when Dad first had our family signed up for an AOL account.  When looking back at the communications schematic now, I feel as Alexander Graham Bell must have felt later about smoke signals after the first phone transmissions.  Our family couldn't even be on the landline telephone (all there really was then) because AOL was monopolizing the lines coming into our home.

It's incredible to reflect on how much has happened and changed since then.  Today our heads are almost a mere extension of this Internet that truly drives the brain of the world.

Two pretty smart and savvy tech guys from O'Reilly Radar also seem to be taking a step back to reflect too.

Check out Scott Berkun's post about "Calling Bullshit on Social Media," and then Joshua-Michéle Ross's rebuttal, "In Defense of Social Media."

The way our world keeps growing and accelerating and gyrating, who knows if we'll ever truly figure this new age of "social media" out.