So I’ve been watching this meme travel around the blogosphere, thanks to Jeff Pulver who started the whole thing.  Incidentally, Jeff has now become the recipient of some severe tongue lashing by several folks regarding his spurious marketing tactics in promoting this meme.  In any case, you’re supposed to list 5 things people don’t know about you and then tag 5 more people to see how far the meme travels. 

If not for this game, I would have never otherwise known that Dave McClure used to be a donut eating champion, Robert Scoble is a closet nose picker, Stephen O’Grady has a rubber band fetish, Jim Jagielski has never lived more than 25 miles away from where he grew up (!), and Sam Ruby has only ever dated one person in his life (!).   I also had a good laugh watching Loren Feldman’s response, which I found by following a thread to Jason Calacanis’ list. 

I love this game - I’m really fascinated by and enjoy learning about people.  I got tagged by Kevin Burton, so here’s my 5 things:

  1. I am addicted to Pirate’s Booty.  I eat 5 bags of Pirate’s Booty a week.  I love all kinds of cheese puffs, but Pirate’s Booty is definitely the best.  I am also addicted to celebrity gossip sites like PerezHilton, PopSugar, and Dlisted, even though I know that by visiting these sites and consuming this information, I am contributing to the downfall of humanity. 
  2. I once made a living as a jewelry designer.  I like manual labor a lot.  It’s like meditating, in a way.  Here are some photos of stuff I created:

    3. earringsbracelet

  3. My first official, paycheck paying job was as a waitress when I was 14.  The job paid $4 an hour.  It never paid any tips either, because it was in the dining room of a retirement home in Irvine, CA.  This job sucked.  I had to buy pink oxford shirts and khaki pants that I would have never worn otherwise.  However, I learned one important lesson: waiting on tables is hard, thankless work.  I don’t have a natural talent for it because I have a crappy memory.
  4. When I was in my early 20s, I cofounded and wrote the business plan for a company that we took public a couple of years later at a $600 million+ valuation.  The company never reached its potential and innumerable mistakes were made along the way.  The most important thing I learned can be recited directly out of “The 10 Commandments of Entrepreneurship”: the first handful of hires will set the tone, culture, and values for the entire company, so make these choices carefully.  Are the people you’re surrounding yourself with people you would trust your life to in the trenches? If not, it’s better to err on the side of being conservative and grow more slowly.   The culture you build compounds exponentially in often unpredictable ways, so plant those seeds very carefully.  I hope to never make this mistake again.
  5. I felt most alive when swimming off the shore of Kailua (in Oahu, Hawaii) this summer. 

The 5 people I tag are George Zachary, Bill Tai, Matt Asay, Jonas Luster - who has a gargantuan vault of fascinating stories, and Raph Koster - because I want to see this meme jump the tracks to the gaming universe.

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