Excerpts

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“There are two ways to ruin any chances of leading a happy life. The first is to chase a goal twenty four hours a day, day after day, and gladly give up all the little laughs and joys that life has to offer in exchange for that ever-elusive moment of jubilation. The second way is far worse, in that it NEVER fails. You know what it is, Sam? Falling in love with someone who chases a goal twenty four hours a day.”

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As Sam stood outside Java Junkies and watched the crowd that Saturday morning, a back-to-basics realization shook him to the core—not because it was profound or life-changing but because it was laughably simple and painfully obvious. Indeed, that was the problem with any of the “simple truths” in the world of business—in the end, it always took a gaggle of complete idiots or a team of all-knowing geniuses to overlook them.

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Three years after the dot-com boom, the dust had finally settled.  Nobody said a thing about changing the world, in or out­side the office or anywhere else in the Valley.  Silicon Valley had gone from the best of times to the worst of times and descended into an era of collective resignation where employers barely paid what it took to keep employees from leaving and employees barely did what it took to keep employers from firing them.

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“There comes a time in everyone’s life—and I do mean in everyone’s life—when you ask yourself what it is that you’ve been doing with your life. Sometimes you even realize that whatever you’ve been doing all your life, you’ve been doing it wrong. Dead wrong… Son, you want that realization to hit you when you’re 70? Or 50? Or when you’re still young, with your whole life still ahead of you?”