Amsterdam, October 20, 2011

A woman cleans a house. You pay her and she goes. One day she does not show up and you seek another woman to clean your house. We had a young woman (26) cleaning our house. My ex-wife fired her because after four years she wasn't good enough. I liked her. She was a bit troubled; came from Bulgaria and thought that the West supposed to be easy. It wasn't. She complained about it and about many things in her life. Sometimes I did not like her. For me she could have stayed.

Through her eyes I understood some things in life better. She thought that girls working in Fashion shop made 50 euros an hour. They actually make less than 10-12 euros gross. Life is all about expectations.

Before the Bulgarian, there was a woman who cleaned our house. She was much older. She was a hard worker. I liked her. She lived close by. We became friends. I visit her about 4-6 times a year. We talk. She has a husband. He is a good man. For years I visit them with gusto. They are old-fashioned people who do not understand globilization; migration or the banking crisis.

Whatever opinions they might have, they are good people. Today I visited them. We sat and talked. The husband of the woman that cleaned my house, who is dear to me, has cancer. It spread out all through his body. He will die soon. How soon?

I am not gonna worry about that, he said. What is the use? They both nodded. He takes painkillers. They have not yet told their daughter. Why upset her? This is what life is, she said. He stood up and walked to the kitchen. How will I cope with death?

Robert

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Amsterdam, October 5, 2011

Karima is a friend of mine from way back. She is my Sheba. Got a message from her today telling she was moved by the acceptance speech of Nasrdin Dchar (gouden Kalveren).



In 1961 a young, brown boy arrived in the harbor of Amsterdam, on a ship from Curacao, with his parents. Many have said his eyes were beautiful. But the young, brown boy did not care about that. His eyes devoured the world always looking for a different angle. Actively observing the outside world and understanding the trends and the counter-trends of multi-sub-cultured life.

Sometimes the eyes get filled with tears as they see pure passion - a moment where there are no lies or no make-believes - simply because the force inside a person is too powerfull to fake it. Dear Nasrdin, wherever you came from, lets bring more of you over here. Let's fill the world with positive, passionate people.

Robert

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Amsterdam, October 4, 2011

About two hours a day I scan through many links hunting for a great story that offers wisdom. It is all part of the overall scheme to harvest collective intelligence. And in many instances, you find valuable information. Yet sometimes you find something that is funny and good. I do not know whether the story is right, but irony in the text is brilliant.

In the early years of his political career, Rick Perry began hosting fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters at his family’s secluded West Texas hunting camp, a place known by the name painted in block letters across a large, flat rock standing upright at its gated entrance.

“Niggerhead,” it read.

I’ve learned in long years of experience blogging about American politics that there are no racists in the United States. Certainly if there are any, they’re not white people. And certainly if there are any racist white people, they’re not conservatives. So let’s just say that if you’re a Republican county commissioner in Minnesota, this is the kind of thing that might lead you to wonder if Perry’s brand of politics will play well outside the Old Confederacy where people sometimes misunderstand this kind of thing.

And for Perry? Perry who? :)

Robert

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 Friends in the main-stream?

Amsterdam, Monday August 29, 2011. I came to believe that conspiracy theories are not really interesting. Maybe the CIA was in it to kill JFK? Maybe Elvis is still alive? Maybe the Freemasons are ruling the world? 

To me there is more crucial questions on who rules the world. Mainstream thinking rules the world. If so, the question is how do we influence main-stream thinking to chance its course (a little). Only 50 years it was main-stream to think black people (mostly called differently back then) were inferior people. It is not anymore main-stream thinking. How can we tell? No politician can run an overt racist campaign.

In Holland a politician runs an overt anti-moslim campaign - successfully - proving that it is main-stream thinking. How do we influence the passive adopters of this main-stream thinking to stop thinking like that?

How do we make people look at the TribeQa projects as the Pioneer's way to the future? How do I change the behavior of some of my friends? Do I have friends who think main-stream? What does that make me?

Robert

INFLUENCERS TRAILER FR VERSION from R+I creative on Vimeo.

 Elizabeth Taylor

Amsterdam, Sunday September 15, 2011.

Are children impressed by beauty? As a child I watched Elizatbeth Taylor in a movie and I thought that she looked like ..... like hum .... like Elizabeth Taylor. I had no second thought. Was she pretty? It never crossed my mind. I must have been 8 years old. At 10 years, I saw a picture of Racquel Welch.

I sensed a deep erotic sensation, probably non-sexual, but certainly erotic. The boy was not a child anymore. Was it Raquel or was it that I was two years older? Now I see the beauty in Elizabeth Taylor and in many others. I see beauty in almost all people. But I might be still a child, because it still does not impress me much.

But than again those Raquel Welch sensations do not seem to go away. I might not be a child after all. Or am I maybe a man-child? A man-child that now is a big fan of Mrs. Taylor.... and of Raquel (ooooooooh yes).                               

 Crowd Accelerated Innovation

Amsterdam, Monday August 29, 2011. There is a LinkedIn group, in which the question something like "What would you say, if you were invited to speak on TED". Do not know what TED is, ... duh ... look it up! pssh.

I do not think any discussion (question) on LinkedIn had more traction than that question. If so, please tell me. Goes to show how impressed people are with TED.

I am impressed!

Look at the clip !!!!

Robert

 JUST AN ANSWER ON QUORA

Amsterdam, Monday August 29, 2011. I am a big fan of Quora, but  - just like this blog - I have not yet incoprporated it in my daily routines. Anyway I am following this question for weeks now and new answers keep on coming. So it became time to give my answer.

Should I seek a co-founder before or after building a prototype for my startup?

Unknown Quora contributor: I'm a technical founder building a sweet new consumer startup. I want to bring in 2 co-founders (a great designer and a fellow developer) at some point.

What's the right time to bring them in? I'm currently in the prototype stage. If I bring co-founders in now, they get to contribute vision, help speed it up, etc. However, I also run the risk of not showing them a complete enough product to convince them to join me. They may decide to pass me up, or worse - take my ideas and build it themselves!

If I wait till a bit later (e.g. after launching a beta), I can make a better pitch to potential cofounders, and also ensure I maintain a lead. However, they will feel like "employees" instead of cofounders, since my personal vision is so baked into the product.

What are your thoughts on a better time to seek cofounders? Any suggestions on timing greatly appreciated.

Me: It is all in the word Co-Founder! How can they be Co-Founders if they cannot contribute substantially to the DNA of the company. People do not commit to an concept, but to your personality. And accept the risk for copycats. An idea is just an idea; execution is what counts. That's why you need your team. Accept the fact that people will reject your ideas, proposals or products. It is all part of life. Success. Go for it!

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 DO I LOVE MY iPAD 2?

Amsterdam, Monday August 8, 2011. Since I am back from Curacao, the summer in Holland sucks. But a few days ago I walked the streets of Amsterdam. My iPad and some papers in my hand. I sat on terrace in the sun. Next to a couple, they talked, he said something, I reacted, we laughed. Later, when they left, he said that they were celebrating 7 years of being together. I smiled. The sun dissapeared, but I felt great.

Working on my iPad I was surrounded by real people on a real street. I was productive, while enjoying myself in my office on a terrace. Yes, I love my iPad. But as love goes, there are some issues also. I hate it that Apple does not feature Flash websites. This makes it impossible for me to work with www.pearltrees.com. To me this website is the best I have found since a long time. I love it. (Yes, I know I fall in love easily). It is great for bookmarking in very visual way. Of course, you can bookmark in Safari, but I want my data in one place. I already have bookmarks in Delicious and in Pearltrees.

Why I do know not anymore; it has been already 36 hours ago. I bought an App for $1.59 called DeliTouch. Got a warning from Apple, asking whether I really bought it. Apparently, nobody else did it before me. Thanks, Apple for making me look like a fool.... or a pioneer??

Well, pioneer suits me better than a fool. But maybe there synonomous. Anyway the App syncs with Delicious and with PinBoard.in (I do not use it). Great idea that syncing! And yes, I downloaded it and it worked. I can now read my bookmarks from Delicious through DeliTouch on my IPad. But like a hot babe with a bad character, there always trouble whenever you do not need it.

How do I bookmark webpages in Safari that wind up in DeliTouch? Where is the manual? The website? Where is the information? Now I have to start searching for answers? Why can't I find the way to do it? Am I a fool? Is the app a fool? I hate my iPad! I want my pearltrees on there, NOW!

I want to travel between te lands of Windows, Safari, iOS, Ubuntu and Android without any passport checks. I want to feel free. Why don't I have a nice secretary who could check these things out for me. Hey, that is an idea, a nice secretary!  I need to put that on my action list.

11.45 PM, sleep well, my dear readers. Baci.

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SYMBID, AM I A SOB OR NOT?

Amsterdam, Tuesday August 2, 2011. The idea was that I would write on my daily life as an entrepreneur and all y'all would start to like me and understand what a great adventure I am embarking on. And because you all like me and you like adventures, you would join me in my big trip. Well, nobody reads me. Does not matter, because I love writing it. But you - my dearest unknown fan, that reads me and follows me in silence, you my dear does not get all the information. So many things happen that I do not write about. It is a shame. How can you follow an adventure, if it is not written about. 

Take my good friend Martha Terenzzo. I have yet to write about her.

Hi Martha, I am talking to some people to make WiserBanks much more visual. Would it not be great to let people present their ideas first in a video pitch. If the pitch gets so many votes, we ask her or him to write it out in a more detailed fashion. Just an idea. brainstorming through life. hahaha Baci Robert.

A useless paragraph, because you - my dear readers - have no context. But at least, Martha is out there and more to come, I promise you.

I have become a member of Symbid, a Dutch crowdfunding site. Yes, I registered and yes I was asked to create my profile. Buhhh, I have done probably more than 100x already. Anyway, I needed to write my biography. Didn't wanna do it. than I thought - Why not combine in a post? Smart thinking.

So, this is my biography I wrote for Symbid

At TribeQa, we make people smarter. We do it by giving people extra brainpower. And where does it matter most; being smart I mean. Being smarter is most important when you have to make a difficult decision. Anybody really could use some extra brainpower at those time.So, making people smarter is a market for all times. Handing over extra brainpower satisfies a deep consumer need that will last forever.

Does TribeQa has a solution? Yes and No. Yes, we believe people can become smarter by using the collective intelligence of a dedicated group of people. At TribeQa, we call them The Smart Crowd.No, we do not have a magical clean algorithm solves your problems anywhere at anytime. We are not that smart and maybe we are not smart at all. Maybe the smartest thing would have been never to start working at it at all. But do we enjoy it. OOOH yes, everyday and almost anytime. One of the great things of this job is to meet smart, creative people who have a mind of their own and seek unconventional solutions.

Well, to make this biography a little more personal. I must tell you that I am really a nice guy. Not everybody agrees with that. Some people think I am an arrogant SOB. Maybe it because I like to dig deeper in conversations; get to the bottom of it, find out what really makes people tick. Maybe they are or maybe not.

Find out and follow me on my personal blog - live at www.smartercrowds.com. Well folks, do not take life too serious, but keep up the discipline. Be self-critical, but never lose self-confidence. Want to become smarter; join me on an adventure to who knows where.Un saludo,
Robert.

If I was a visitor at Symbid and happen to read this, I would directly rush over to smartercrowds to follow the adventure. And if not, me I am going to continue writing and my secret reader is going to read and read and read some more.... Baci.

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WHY DESIRE A VISION?

Amsterdam, Monday July 25, 2011.My target was to upload at least four new posts a week and keep y'all informed. With almost an hour before the week passes without any post this week, I seek a quick solution. I was working on WiserBanks today. In Brasil Martha Terenzzo is meeting with her innovation crew and talks about WiserBanks. I decided that I will use WiserBanks to filter my database. If you are not in; you are out.

Hahaha, that sounds like a threat; most people will feel a sense of relieve. No more mailings from TribeQa. Life is great. Well, one shortcoming of the last month is that we have not been sending emails. Stupid and too bad, because there was really a routine, but the campaigns lacked an action trigger.

While working on WiserBanks I wrote this piece. The text feels good now, but will it tomorrow. It is not an important text; general information for the page Q&A. Still, it is a crucial challenge to get practical ideas and not big visions that end nowhere.

Asking or answering questions is a daily must for most knowledge workers. The added value of WiserBanks will depend largely on the quality of the Q&A. To get the best result, WiserBanks qualifies the question and the answers as two separate entities. We love solid, good questions; even if the solid, good answer hasn't been given. Having agreat question, WiserBanks will distribute the Q on social networks in search for the answer.

We do not mind long answers as long as it logically sound and based on verifiable facts and clear-worded arguments. We prefer participants limit their visionary thought to as little as possible. A great bank is built on the care of details; not largess of a vision. Obviously, the details spring from the vision. But a vision without a connection to operating details is an empty vessel full of useless pretense.

Bon Nochi.

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MICRO-EXPRESSIONS

Amsterdam, Tuesday July 19, 2011. After days of rain and grey skies, the sun is sweet-talking her way into my face. A moment of tranquility in the sun on the terrace of a small hotel. Somehow it does not feel Amsterdam; it feels Spain. I am waiting a very dominant lady. She says I am dominant. I agree. She says I am aggressive. I reject that observation. I say that she has a lot more aggression in her than I have. I know I am right. But if try to get it (being right) I am dominant. Is aggressiveness the natural partner of dominance? Also, I am a Think person, or was I a Do Person? Apparently, I am not a Feel Person. I am not sure about that. Give me an emotional scene in a movie and tears under the bridge.

The dominant lady has become some sort of a friend to me in the last weeks. A woman who knows her watches, Japanese restaurants, Paris, Hindi and micro-expressions. As I prefer to play the cultural barbarian, I accuse her - gently - of being  a snob. I wish I was a snob, but I completely lack the knowledge of a snob. Never wore a watch in my life; don't know any Hindi and Paris has been ages ago. Sushi I dig; tepanyaki I crave. So there might be hope.

Suppose you are filmed for one minute  in a close-up, well...actually it was a medium-shot. Three questions are asked: Who is your best friend? What is the name of your mother? The questions are repeated. In that one minute, you reveal your true personality. Totally uncovered, you face - naked in the harsh white light of the morning sun - seems to be telling an undeniable truth. And what's more, there is somebody to translate that facial language, that is unconscious facial language. They do it at the FBI, they do it in Lie To Me, a TV series and they do it in the house of the dominant-slightly-aggressive, full-bossomed-Hindi-talking lady. She has a sweet cat also. Sits on my lap.

I am very critical towards her on the micro-expressions. She thinks it is because I am dominant. Because she is dominant, she does not accept my criticism lightly. It never gets aggressive. I like her. But that is not the point; I am here for business. Is micro-expressions a business? I think so, but we need to improve it. That is why I am critical. There is a business and TribeQa can profit from it. But something is missing to make a hit. I feel the answer, but I can not express it yet. That why I talk. I am big for most people. i do not see myself like that. As a former basketball player - a lousy shooting guard who seemed to be injured all the time - I look at myself as a midget with a big heart.

My dominance is more like Calimero. Anyway .. why do I always think Ellen if write or mention that word. Anyway - micro-expressions are going to be a hit. I can not lie about that, because my face would tell you that I was lying.

Potential target groups: News-of-the world reporters, cheating wifes, bankers, dominant people, ..... you?

Today was a day where freelancers talk to freelancers over the great ideas they have. Tomorrow must be a disciplined hard-working day behind the computer.

P.S. These posts are all first versions; I do not really check grammar. It is the flow that is talking; no corrections. So do not be mad for grammar mistakes. That sounds timid and insecure. You see I am not dominant. hahahahahah

Un abrazo

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YOUNG BLOODS

Amsterdam, Monday July 18, 2011. Today a big game was scheduled on the DDV tennis courts. An epic battle between friends. A tennis rivalry that goes back now for more than 15 years. Well the news is, it got cancelled due to the rain. Too bad, I felt like winning this morning. I was almost sure that I would win and extend the streak to 2-0. Why is it important? Well, it isn't really, but it shows that competition, having fun and being friends is a happy combination.

A combination that we promote in all of our services with TribeQa. You want to know about the Battle, follow us on FB. As you are aware - my dear readers of this emerging blog - JJ is a shareholder of TribeQa and a long-time supporter. But as of today another Young Blood is joining our ranks - Berber.

Berber likes pictures and has a good feel for them. She will responsible (yes Berber heavy duty) for all the visuals on all of 18+ websites. Can she carry the weight of such a responsible job? Of course, she can. I feel she really has a knack for it. It made me a happy man seeing how she quick she adopts it. And in my left eye, I saw a proud dad.

Did you know that Miron Lulic and James Anthony are now following me on Twitter? We have about 15-20 people now folowing us. I wish I could spend the whole day on these social networks, well .... a whole three hours a day. Today was more like 3 minutes; down from 7 minutes average for the last month. Last month I was the most influential person in the LIN Entrepreneur Zone and today I am just quiet nobody. Life is hard for a social person. But I did manage to write one comment.

The discussion theme was:

CAN A TEAM WITH DIVERSE SKILLS EFFECTIVELY REPLACE A PERFORMING CEO?

Can a team replace a CEO? Yes. Can a CEO replace a team? No. Of course, a team could effectively replace a CEO..... if you substantially change the way a company is organized. Keep the company traditional; the answer is no. Change the company fundamentally; the answer is yes, it could. But the bigger question is: How must we change a company to reduce the importance of CEO in favor of a smart group of people (the team)?

Now comes the self-promotion part: we are busy preparing a project that might touch upon these issues. It is a idea-generation project for the financial industry. Anybody interested? Let's be 8 times stupid and 2x brilliant.

Well, my friends, the day has been a pleasure. Adios, hasta pronto.

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I HATE LEARNING CURVES

Amsterdam, Friday July 15, 2011. It is late 22.03. I promised myself to be in bed at 22:30. Solution: short post. Today was a day of the learning curve. I became member of Arkli.com; MailChimp.com and WordPress.com.

The goal is to distribute my blog posts in Smartercrowds to as many other sites as possible (FB, Twitter, etc) in one action. That is not possible, because Joomla does not have anything in the core platform that can do that. I have not looked at an extension yet. So I write this post in SmarterCrowds and copy/paste in Arkli.com

From Arkli I shoot it in the world: Facebook, Facebook Pages (very, very good), Twitter, WordPress (another blog?) and emails. My thing is that FB and Twitter are standard, but publishing to the FB Pages is cool and the emails are very cool also... but than again I did not test it yet.

That is why I opened up an account MailChimp.com. They accomodate the distribution of emails for Arkli, but .... they too have a platform for campaigns. So we have an overlap. We always have overlaps between services. Now I need to check MailChimp out also. If it is really good, than maybe I can stop working in Salesjunction.com. Yet I did not quite yet get my arms around MailChimp.

Anyway, I opened also an account with WordPress. As we have all our websites on the Joomla Platform WordPress is a bit redundant, but the vibe is buzzing on WP. So to stay in the action, I am now also a member on the WP Platform. Col or Crazy, I am not sure, but to a certain level it is exciting. Only I hate learning curves.

I hate time also. 22:30 - it has been a day as usual - almost completely drowning in the overkill of the internet. The power is on the ones that curacte, aggregate, etc. That's us. I am going to sleep and dream of hooking up with an angel investor. So boring, there was a time - in last century - that dreamed high-quality adult movies. Life is hard as an entrepreneurs doing the learning curves. Sleep well. Baci.

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WISERBANKS: Global Set-Up

Amsterdam, Wednesday July 13, 2011. Today I wrote the first draft for WiserBanks. I really want to push WiserBanks on all my social network contacts globally. The big thing is we need to empower the website with the right social tools to make it work. This means that I need to start checking out the providers of those social tools.

WiserBanks is  a global initiative to innovate the banking sector. Many groups are discussing the same theme online and offline, but seem to get stuck in grand vision of a better banks without actually creating something that works and offers an alternative for financial consumers. Our intention is create an online bank that offers the best services from other banks. That is why we chose the theme "Let's build a new bank". In our vision innovation only matters if services come to the market and are adopted by consumers. To create a new online bank we think and hope to get insiders involved as well as outsiders. We seek diversity in ideas and believes that diversity in backgrounds make that goal easier.
As a global industry that is regulated heavily with different laws in individual countries, we intend to encourage discussions on a local (national) level and try to extract the best ideas and practices to the international level.

TRIBEQA COPYWRITE

Amsterdam, Thursday July 14, 2011. Probably the first reaction of many will that the frontpage carries too much text. I do not like that comments. I get irritated by that particular remark. Even if it is true, I do not like it. It is one of those remarks that must have been very intelligent when it was made first; than it became mainstream thinking and now it is a dogma. BS with dogmas. If you are intersted in something you like to read about it. If you not interested than .. who cares what you think. Bye.

This text is a first draft version and needs to be polished. I hope when finished it is informational and gives people a broad vision on what my dream company will be like. Smart people will directly understand the synergy. Yet it is still a crazy mabitious idea that TribeQa will never lift off if not find funding. Why didn't I marry a super-rich women? Where is my huge trust-fund? Again I am writing too much.

The TribeQa Group makes people smarter. We make people smarter by helping them make better, wiser decisions in less time and with less stress. Our work is straightforward: we develop online business models that bring something new. We have developed formats in (a) investment advice, (b) leadership & innovation training courses, (c) internet TV, (d) social sales, (e) fund research, and (f) third-party investment distribution. In addition, we have set up projects for co-creation, investment competitions, performance reviews and idea generation. TribeQa is setup as a harbor for new ideas and projects. We can make deals with 80% of all ambitious people in the world by somehow connecting it with one of our services.   

1. At the most basic level we are a (social) sales organisation. Our Social Sales Group™ (SSG) sells TribeQa services and third-part services that fall within our interest field.
2. Our creative heart is developing new products & services. Our expertise is to connect a creative idea with a business model.
3. Creative ideas are nice, but execution is king. Our experience in innovative management structures allows us to coach & train leaders and staff in effective, practical ways to increase productivity and motivation in workers.
4. Once you have things running, people and companies need to improve (innovate) themselves to retain competitive advantage. TribeQa makes people smarter. We do so by using collective intelligence to add more brainpower in your decision-making. This feature is the 'Killer App' of TribeQa.
5. To harvest collective intelligence TribeQa communicates with people all over the world and builds a new type of social network (The Smart Crowd) that shared by all of our customer. Building an effective social platform is the core skill.
6. We offer a collective pool (listed on the Stock Exchange) of risk capital that will be invested in TribeQa and carefully selected young companies. We developed a collective decision-making tools enabling us to make quick, collective decisions without endless discussions.
7. TribeQa works together with Angel Investors to better manage their direct-investment portfolio. TribeQa employs the Smart Crowd to do the job. Angel Investors - strapped for time - hire us to supervise, improve and inspire young companies to become more profitable quicker.
8. We invest our own capital using our own trading & investment models and collective research models, proving the value add for our investment services.
9. We create liquidity and transparency for young companies by listing them on the stock exchange and creating continuous valuations increasing the odds substantially for new funding.
10. We build collective research models on mutual funds and help financial institutions to better communicate portfolio management with their client base.
11. TribeQa sets up idea generation projects to harvest ideas on social relevants topics. This could lead to new projects in the future.
12. Finally, we build online video platform that attract business professional in specific areas. We have designed attractive formats that implicitly harvest collective intelligence, offers innovation ideas and highlights competition allowing us to identify the smartest people for our Smart Crowd.clip to another.

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POWER TO THE SHEBAS

Amsterdam, Sunday July 10, 2011. She was only fifteen, only fifteen and I was too old to not know. Sam Cooke's unforgettable song pops up in my mind when I think back at the first time I saw her. She sat there as the Queen of Sheba. She worked at Albert Hein behind the counter. A once-in -a lifetime beautiful face with lips so gracious that you could not NOT look at her. I  changed rows only to be served by her. I went to buy things in Albert Hein that I did not need. But I came to realize that it was not her beauty that stood out. It was her aura; in one glance you could see that she did not make a statement on purpose; she is a statement that she is a special woman. A women with ambition; a woman with her own road to travel.

I never kissed her lips. We became friends. Good friends. She lives close by, but I hardly see her. She is a docter, married a great guy, has a smile for a daughter, great parents and a world-conquerer as a brother, who happens to look like a nonchalant fashion model with wild hair. Sometimes she makes me feel real again. If the fake-blond leader of the narrow-minded little people says something stupid again, she reacts emotional like it is personal. It is personal to her and I like that. They shout dirty in my face; I only laugh and feel nothing.

But if I feel her pain (little theatrical & overly-dramatic decsription) I as a humble knight will fight the war to protect my princess. To fight the war for global peace, multi-cultural societies, borderless friendships and smarter people in general. She is a princess; not of Sheba, at least not yet. By now you must be thinking; what in heaven's name has this to do with TribeQa. Is SmarterCrowds.com not a blog on the daily adventures of setting up a wildly risky venture? A romantic, almost picaresque effort to live the life I want and to set up a company few could imagine, regardless of the consequences. My answer is Yes, it has all to do with just that.

Although I love to describe her in romantic colors, because sometimes you want to be different: I am nfar from being a romantic person. So now back to the harsh realities of real life. She (that woman I just decribed in soft tones) refuses to be on Facebook. I do not understand that. I think it is not intelligent; it is not social and it is the wrong thing to do. Why? Her aspiration are not only to be a doctor, a good doctor, probably a great doctor. No, she wants to make it in the managerial ranks of the hospital. Now, here comes my problem. Do we really need managers in hospitals or any other company that have no clue of social media? Who do not comprehend the ways to listen effectively to patients, clients or other stakeholders? Who never realize the importance what collective intelligence can do for their companies?

The world is changing and stupid dictators and their familes, still shopping in high-fashion in Paris, New York and Marbella, are feeling the heat every day. There are no secrets in the world anymore. To survive you need to understand the digital world. Nobody will succeed anymore with old-school thinking.

Why, o - why is my Princess of Sheba not seeing that? How can I fight the little people with old-school concepts? Oh Sheba, change thy way. It is not hype what is uniting people all over the world, creating a new order of people working and thinking together.

Oh Shebas, lead us with your wisdom, so mavericks like me will follow your leads. Aspire more; let your wisdom be heard far outside your own walls. We need woman to lead with their black feminine hair, creamed brown skins, lips that kiss & bite and faces-chissled-pride that makes roman emporars look like little boys. The world belongs to you; embrace the digital world and rule us benignly with all your feminity, wisdom and generosity. Women of the world do you 'thang' and make all of us smarter.

WHEN STARTING A COMPANY

Amsterdam, Wednesday July 6, 2011. The article opens with "When starting a company, it's hard to know what to tackle first. One Quora user asked:

"What generic first order principles should a new technology project or startup follow?"

Founder Adam D'Angelo responded:

1. Figure out what's important and focus almost entirely on that.
2. Make massive tradeoffs to get the first version done quickly
3. If it's a project where users interact with each other, think through the incentives
4. Keep things simple
   

Scanning so many webpages a day, my initial reflex was to dismiss the obvious. Why would I work on something that is not important? Duhuh...

But before I hit the delete button, it struck me that sometimes the most obvious gets lost in the chaos. As I am working on the information through the 18+ websites, I do get side-tracked a lot. This is not bad, because I also found a lot valuable sources, but is it the most important thing to do?

NO, it is not! Writing a new version of the Executive Summary is absolutely the number One Priority. Although I am thinking about it all the time, I need to execute. Adam is right: focus almost entirely on that. Oeff that will be difficult, but I try. Already made the setup as a webpage.

P.S. Check out Quora.com; you need to be on it.

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MASSIVEIQ

Amsterdam, Monday July 4, 2011. I do feel that the American Anthem is by far the most beautiful of them all. I remember walking through Central Park on the Fourth of July, somewhere in 1971 as a kid. A dog was jumping from a walking bridge in the water, swam back and jumped again. Again, again, again. For whatever this the only day in the year that I care about.

And my good ol' friend Ed Volkerts is making his birthday. A great person who defies all sign of ageing. I learned him (and my dad) that being tough (as a coach) and fair is probably the best way to manage people. I believe that you can only be tough and fair, if you care deeply.

I am such romantic fool thinking back in this little post, while the topic is quite mundane. I worked on the MassiveIQ website. It is not finished. For all y'all that do not know MasdsiveIQ. It is a (starting) media production company. The idea is to execute several online video projects that we are planning for. To do this, we use our co-creation model, in which talented (hopefully) and ambitious people will join us in an creative, free-spirited environment. Together we make engaging online video clips that fit within an overall format. Actually, we create online TV shows.

We do it for TribeQa and also other companies. At this stage, my main interest is to research the tools to create, publish and distribute the clips. I am particularly looking for a Playlist feature that automatically switches from one clip to another.

On the business side, we are talking to a potential strategic partner to set up several online business platforms dedicated to different sectors. The format we created is simple, but very effective to draw people. But it is early and certainly to early to estimate the odds for collaboration.

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TO POST OR NOT TO POST

Amsterdam, Sunday July 3, 2011. I am not a big fan of these Shakespearesque references to some pseudo-existtential title. But to creative 24 hours a day is not always possible.

As my faithful reader you know I started blogging again only three days ago. And as a reborn-religious fanatic I want to spread the word. MY WORD. Let my followers flock together and be inspired by my vision and insight. Of course I say that 99.9% jokingly. Yet the real question of course is - indeed - how do I distribute my daily blog posts. How can I reach my audience?

Suppose I am able to just that - reach my potential audience. some big investor in japan sees the light and understands the genius of our plans. Takes the JAL and overbids the offer price for 10% of the company (TribeQa). Would that not be great?

So now you why I blog. Anyway, I got a spammy mail from Postling.com stating the obvious fact that I had no activity during this month or something like that. As a member of more than 100 websites, I get these messages a lot. But now my pain was real. I need a distribution platform and Postling pretends to be just that.

As happens often to me, I never really get a website in the first hour. Sure I was able to pos a tweet that made it also to facebook. Fine, but boring. Been there/Seen it, etc.  I want to show the whole post on FB, but didn't reach Facebook. Something I did? so back to my learning curve!

Any Postling Whizz Kids reading my posts?

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AN OLD FRIEND

Amsterdam, Saturday July 2, 2011. Yesterday I met a good ol' friend. Long time no see. Waling like two old man in the park, we talked about everything. Our backhands(mine); changing the rules of Soccer. daughters (his), ex-wives (ours), cities, private equity, Amsterdam and ... FOREX.

The FOREX or currency markets are very deep markets that offer incredible liquidity for day-traders. He started a small trading company with two FOREX traders who aim to extract 40 pips on a daily basis. Having a 40-pip-profit day is not difficult, but doing it - on average - on daily basis is a complete different thing. But it is completely useless to discuss future performance; the proof is somewhere in that pudding.

But - and this is a personal disaster - his story intrigued me. I have dismissed short-term trading for the GroupIQ as being irrelevant. I think most retail investors should stay far and away from any short-term aspirations. It is a sure way to fail for most. But it is mighty exciting for those few who know the markets and are disciplined enough to stick to the strategy.

So yes, TribeQa will start a small website dedicated to short-etrm currency trading. We have the URL already and will harvest collective intelligence on these ultra short-term strategies. It is a sensible addition to the long-term strategies we propose for the GroupIQ.

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THE SHIP SAILS

Amsterdam, Friday July 1, 2011. I make myself a promise. I start posting my stories almost everyday. I talk about my Himalya. The adventures of the TribeQa Group.

The most important thing to understand about TribeQa (and therefor me) is that a 110% effort of the current team will NOT make it succesful. Without additional resources we are like a guy who needs to lift a 5.000 pound elephant for 200 miles on his back. (How much does an elephant actually weigh?)

We have no expertise to program script and we are undermanned to sell the services that we have developped. This is not a complaint; it is the logical consequence of our chosen strategy. Very deliberately we have chosen a high-risk strategy of setting up a very broad platform that covers various business sectors from online video, investment to coaching & training.

So, our main purpose is to hunt and chase strategic and financial partners. These strategic partners offer extra resources to leverage and expand the concept. If - for whatever reason - we are not able to find the right partners the inevitable consequence is failure. Whatever what, you will not hear us complain or cry the coulda/woulda/shoulda excuses.

We take the risk and we deal with it. But actually, we do not in failure. It is a concept we are strangely unfamiliar with. It just like you do not drown in 50 centimeter deep pool.

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