June is a tiny bit of a hot mess.

I forgive you, June.

Came across this Quora answer, written by Paul DeJoe, on his description of what it's like to be CEO of a startup. You can read the full post here, but in case you don't have a Quora account, here are a few of my favorite excerpts:

Very tough to sleep most nights of the week.  Weekends don't mean anything to you anymore.  Closing a round of financing is not a relief.  It means more people are depending on you to turn their investment into 20 times what they gave you.  

You start to respect the Duck.  Paddle like hell under the water and be smooth and calm on top where everyone can see you. 

You start to see that the word "entrepreneur" is a personality.  It's difficult to talk to your friends that are not risking the same things you are because they are content with not pushing themselves or putting it all out there in the public with the likelihood of failure staring at you everyday.  You start to turn a lot of your conversations with relatives into how they might exploit opportunities for profit.  

You feel like a parent to your customers in that they will never realize how much you love them and it is they who validate you are not crazy. You want to hug every one of them. They mean the World to you. 

Of all the things said though, it's exciting.  Every day is different and so exciting.  Even when it's bad it's exciting.

*Paul is CEO at Ecquire and Entrepreneur in Residence at Fairbridge Venture Partners, CRM implementation consultant and Steve Winwood enthusiast.

Snarf.

This is my request instead:

Please make a donation to Live Wright Society a nonprofit founded by my mother, Milly, one of the most courageous, loving, resilient women in the world. 

Live Wright uses music, art and film to Pay It Forward and raise awareness for Multiple Sclerosis, Crohn's/Colitis, Aging out of Foster Care, Organ Transplant, Lou Gehrig's Disease, and Music Brings. 

Wouldn't it be nice if together, we raised $1000 today? Then I could say I had a GREAT birthday :) 



To donate: 
1. Visit Pay It Forward on Eventbrite
2. Enter the amount you'd like to donate under the ticket "$1K IN ONE DAY" and press Order

I was just slicing watermelon in the kitchen, when a large drop of watermelon juice rolled off the cutting board, and took a dive off the edge of the marble counter, landing with a cool, voluptuous splash across my right foot. 

In that instant, all past summer moments of dipping my big toe into the ocean, the pool, the lake before jumping in, came rushing up from my foot, through my muscles, in between my shoulder blades, finally wrapping my temples in a gentle cloud of fresh mist. And I felt the calming rush of relaxation and bliss that only the carefree days of June through August can inspire. 

Who knew feet could be so nostalgic? 

As an actor and producer of 35, the first scripted web series to stream live on the Internet, Kathryn Jones is reinventing the concept of "theater techie." No longer is it only about shadowed souls clad in head-to-toe black, frantically whispering into headsets, trying to perfect the lighting on Juliet's face as she waxes poetic about her happy dagger right before plunging the rusty tool into her broken heart. No - because of Miss Jones and her crew, theater techies now perform a much more visible bow at curtain call. In fact - curtain call has taken the form of rolling credits behind the glow of our computer screens, and the theater techie, now clad with multiple cameras and vigilant live-editing skills, has risen, lens first, into the limelight.

Founded by three women, Better Left Unsaid is a cross between a play, an online video and a live-streamed event - and with already six performances under their belt, Jones (producer) has already broken cross-industry ground by merging theater, technology and social media.

Written by Joey Brennaman, the play follows eight lives as their secrets are revealed, ultimately asking the question "How well do you know the people you love?" Performed in front of a live audience in Manhattan, the production is shot with multiple cameras, mixed in real time, and streamed live so that anyone anywhere in the world can watch, and interact during the show and via the post-show discussions 'What You Said.'

Don't leave Better Left Unsaid unsaid! SPREAD the word. And WATCH their second round of live performances, starting THIS Friday, in your pajamas at home or with armloads of flowers and applause at Center Stage in Flatiron District (48 West 21st Street, 4th Floor, between 5th and 6th Ave., Subway: F or N/R to 23rd).

Theater and online performance times:

Friday, Feb 4 – 8pm EST

Saturday, Feb 5 – 8pm EST

Sunday, Feb 6 – 3pm EST (optimized for European audiences respectively - 9PM GMT )

Sunday, Feb 6 – 7pm EST 
Theater tickets are $18 while interactive online viewing tickets are a suggested donation of $2-$18.

For more information and tickets, visit www.betterleftunsaid.tv.

Someone needs to invent a spray that enhances the smell of my food. 

Because my nose isn't getting enough action, and my taste buds are hogging all the fun. And the end result is that my brain is screwed out of fully appreciating delicious meals.

So if you happen to see me out at a restaurant, face planted in my food - don't laugh. Put your face in your food too, steal a giant whiff, and take comfort in knowing that together, we are slowly redistributing the wealth to our senses, one olfactory receptor at a time. 

There is a space that exists between ambition and success, the dull and delicious, static and fresh – a demure gap of inspiration that can catalyze global movements, or remain entirely invisible.

That space is called the AHA. A flash instant, in which our entire perspectives are shifted, swirled and flipped inside out – revealing a new playing field of ideas and opportunities.

My spicy soul sister, Shauna Mei, harnessed her AHA moment and launched AHAlife this past Monday. And curious minds all over the world will soon be kowtowing in gratitude.

AHAlife.com is a discovery platform of innovative lifestyle products built for savvy, socially conscious consumers. The experience they have created is unerringly reflective of how we are growing as a society. As our lives become more and more cramped with information and shiny new things, we naturally begin searching for ways to filter and curate. We yearn to cut out the noise, so that we can save time and focus on what’s most important, interesting, inspiring. Which is exactly what AHAlife does for the consumer palette. 

Their mantra, “1 product. 24 hours. 100% inspiring,” leverages urgency, scarcity and crowd-sourcing to break the heavymold of e-commerce by creating a shopping process where the only sales pitch is one we make to ourselves. Because the real ‘aha’ behind AHAlife is their growing network of curators who suggest fiercely inspired products from all over the world.  And though that list of curators includes the likes of Diane Von Furstenberg, Tim Gunn and Vivienne Tam, anyone can submit products for consideration. The platform gives us the chance to be influential tastemakers, ultimately guiding ourselves to become a new generation of more sophisticated, conscious and self-generated consumers. You could say AHAlife is a tastemaker of tastemakers. And it is precisely this move that will be the source of their viral success.

Hey Shauna. You always said you loved when people make everyday objects beautiful. Well – look what you have done to the entire industries of e-commerce and media. You. Go. Girl.

There is a force that sits quietly, waiting to be noticed. A bolt of lightning willing the Earth to obtain a charge.

That force is called the AHA. It stops time, allowing us to discover and recognize a piece of life at its fullest. And it is that AHA that pulls our everyday ordinary into a state of infinite beauty.

*For more information, sign up to be a member at AHAlife.com