That’s a lesson that Wayne Gretzky’s father once imparted on the young superstar, and it’s a quote I heard many times when I was younger.  As I’ve progressed from spending time on the ice to spending time in the online realm, it still rings true - Anticipate.  Plot a Course.  Execute.

An entrepreneur is a visionary type.  I think that goes without saying.  A big part of what you do is simply searching around for the next point of inspiration to catch your mind’s eye and send you off on another project.  I’m kind of at that point right now, given recent developments (not sure if I can speak about them publicly yet).  And it’s also something I do pretty consistently no matter what I’m involved in at the time.

Where’s that next idea?  We all know you only need to be ‘right’ once, but rising from nothingness into a $20 million company doesn’t necessarily happen on your first try, or your 2nd or 3rd.  You gotta keep your ear to the grindstone.

So, anticipation.  Let’s consider that for a moment.  For me, there are a core group of factors that come into play when ‘anticipating’ where to take action in business.  First off, it always begins with a check of how the market in question is performing online.  So you’ve got an idea?  Well, how competitive is it to rank organically in Google?  Are there big players currently involved?  What’s the search volume?  How hard is it to get a domain, build links, etc.?  That kind of stuff.

Part two is all about potential profits.  I’m not about to dive into anything that I don’t 100% believe can make me a millionaire, hands down.  That goes without saying.

Beyond those two things, I’ve learned in the past few years to consider seriously the type of business model that will follow the lead of my ability to market online.  How many employees will it take?  What will the overhead be?  The regulations?  Can I/we provide the complete service, from customer origination through finished service?  (that’s a biggie)  If these type of things add up to too much hassle, I’m out.  If it’s gravy, I’m in.

While I’m almost embarrassed by the apparent simplicity of the criteria listed above, it’s the way I’ve come to find ‘my way to the puck’ so to speak.  I truly believe that if you can check off all of these things, then combine the key ingredients of PASSION and a TALENTED TEAM, then you’ll find yourself in the high slot waiting to score the gamewinner while everyone else is left wondering how you pulled it off.

PS I’ll talk about passion and the importance of surrounding yourself with great people in coming posts  . . . 

I get to travel a fair amount.  It’s mostly been domestically so far but it’s been a good ride. I’m also quite into ‘dining’.  Nothing I hate more than a shite chain restaurant or some batshit gypsy that gets down on fast food.  Forgetting the health concerns, it’s just boring to narf on the same meal you can have in suburban STL that you can have in the same chain joint anywhere else in the world.  Food is an awesome thing to experience - it’s like art, and it can be a reflection of cultures and people far outside of the stupid strip mall that you go to every day.

Sitting here in Vegas, I’m reminded of many good meals here in town.  Some joints that are old favorites: Fiamma, Pearl, Ah Sin, Alize.  Love ‘em.  But my ploy today, with the help of Jeff Coyle, Jay Burcheck and Bryan Rahn, has been to find a Brazilian place worthy of our time and money.  Between us we have over 50 Vegas trips and yet there isn’t a consensus on where to hit up some good Brazilian.

Too many times I run into a fucking abomination of Americanization at Brazilian places.  They try to appeal to people by showing huge skewers of meat.  “Eat Brazilian, Come Have Huge Meat Sticks”.  That shit isn’t Brazilian.  I know I haven’t been to Brazil but c’mon.

So I bring this to you my friends, as I stare out the window at Mandalay Bay and Coyle takes a picture of me (later to be posted here) - the best meal I have ever eaten was at Casa in New York.  Hands down.  Go there and enjoy.  Forget your lame ass excuses about why you can’t fly to New York and LIVE, Brazilian style.

For years I’ve done SEO.  Day in and day out, all the mo f’n time.  Probably more than is healthy, I check site rankings, email people for links, obsess over minute details and think about ways to game a system ruled by the almighty Google.  Through that long pursuit, I’ve often read articles and blog posts from ‘white hat’ SEO’s and big name dudes who have lauded the practice of building a ‘good website’ and writing ‘good content’ to earn your way to the top of the search engines.

Bullshit.

They rarely (if ever) talked about the best way to get the rankings everyone so desires.  Granted, I think the content stuff and all that other flowery stuff is important and have spent a ton of time on it, but in the end it’s all about getting a nice old domain and buying links.

Only recently have I seen these guys publicly admitting to their practices.  Only recently have I figured out what type of things they are doing for their clients and their own commercial sites.  It’s almost like the less you listen to the flowery BS about working hard on content the less time you waste.  I could easily just buy the right links, setup a link network, PAY people to make my viral campaigns work, etc.  These lazy liars just ruffle my panties.

This is the truth about 99% of business people, ‘experts’, and the like.  From the d-bag insurance salesman in his JCPenney tie to the crafty little SEO guy sitting at home in his boxers:

Everyone is a copycat.  Everyone is an egomaniac.  Some of us are just more determined to seek out inventive things to copy.  And some of us are just lucky.  Enjoy the ride.

Last time’s quote was from an anonymous personal source . . . This time, let us look at what the great writer Charles Dickens wrote after visiting St. Louis in 1842:

 ”No man ever admits the unhealthiness of the place he dwells in (unless he is going away from it), and I shall therefore, I have no doubt, be at issue with the inhabitants of St. Louis in questioning the perfect salubrity of its climate. . . . It is very hot . . .”

Whatever religion you may be, it’s hard to deny that nature and the spirits came together and got something right in forming the Southern California coast.  I just spent a week in San Diego (I tend to go there a lot), and it never ceases to make me smile.  Waking up to 72 degrees no matter what time of year it is and knowing that the sun will be shining never gets old.

Especially when you live in a shitty place like Missouri.  It’s funny because every day for the past 7 or so years I’ve heard myself or a friend/family member make some condescending jab at how St. Louis sucks, or Columbia sucks, or KC sucks - the weather is f’d up, there’s a bunch of hoosiers, STL has been going downhill for 100 years, and there’s so little to do that people actually care about Cardinals baseball more than their own lives.  It’s a joke really.

Everyone knows that there are tons of other places to be that trump the petty “pros” of the MO.  It doesn’t matter if you prefer the mountains of Colorado, a Florida beach, Seattle, New York, Texas, Phoenix, SoCal, NorCal, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, DC, Maine, Vegas, Tahoe - and I’m keeping this domestic.  Face it, it sucks here.  Either you learn to accept it and make the best of it, which I’m not saying is a terrible way to go because there’s enough culture and activity to fulfill a life for sure, it just seems a tad on the ‘weak’ side to me.  Everyone wants the best in life, why not live somewhere better?

Hell, even if you just do it to change things up a bit (and keep the body guessing), it’d be fun.  Don’t be someone that chooses a job or buys a house in an area near their parents or in proximity to their high school because it’s comfortable and it’s ‘all you’ve ever known’.  Know more, my friend, know more.  Even people who are lucky enough to travel frequently and live in different places around the world for extended periods of time will likely never see 75% of the world and what this life has to offer.  Doing something like moving to a new city for a few years just to see how things go is pretty pedestrian when you think about it . . . The way I see it is you’ve got very few chances to make life-altering decisions and if you take the predictable route on too many you’ll end up 53 years old and wondering why life is so short and what the fuck just happened.

This is me being philosophical about life because I’ve fallen in love with the sun and the sand of La Jolla, CA.

Last week’s quote came from Andy Gray’s voiceovers on any FIFA soccer video game since like 1995.  This week, we get even  more obscure and confusing:

“I am real dissapointed that you and I didn’t get big into blow like I had wanted.  At least you could have done it with me long enough for me to make other blow friends.” 

In an attempt to follow through on my promise to talk about soccer for 1 week here on TGS, here’ s a little rant about soccer and this lovely country of our’s . . .

David Beckham’s arrival definitely has people more interested in professional soccer than is usually the case, particularly the domestic kind. His first game with the Galaxy earned a large TV audience for ESPN (when compared to stuff like billiards and post-2000 hockey). Kudos. But MLS won’t be saved by David Beckham, no matter how many Beckham jerseys are sold.

Why might you ask? I think it’s because the quality of play is awful and the game doesn’t translate well into the American TV culture. And let’s face it, what works on TV is what works in America. People aren’t much interested in sitting down for 45 minutes straight and watching guys almost-maybe-get-a-chance at scoring a goal.

Where’s the time for people to argue about plays? The play never stops. What about time to go grab another beer or refill the chips and salsa? You’ll have to wait til half time. The stupid hick-ass redneck uneducated racist NFL is the toast of our time and soccer couldn’t be further from that. At least in hockey the guys might drop the gloves or slam someone through the glass right? Some fashion mullet sporting European wants to fake an injury after falling over? Go to hell Jose.

That’s what people who know little about soccer are thinking. Those that are casual to sincere fans about the game are equally as indifferent to Beckham’s arrival because they know he’s not very dynamic as a player and that the MLS sucks. I saw some comments from the likes of Taylor Twellman (St. Louis represent) about how the first telecast was somewhat of a farce because ESPN focused so much on Becks chilling on the bench and on his hot wife in the stands.

Why weren’t they covering Houston’s game that day, promoting Twellman and Pat Noonan (STL again) in a matchup of top teams? Because the teams aren’t very good, relatively speaking. MLS ranks as possibly the 12th best soccer league in the world. I know that Twellman is a star in the MLS yet he can’t hardly crack the national team’s starting side, let alone get off the bench of any European club.

David Beckham in the MLS? It’s like Jeremy Roenick joining the ECHL and people expecting something more than a spectacle on JR. Grapes wouldn’t have that! The quailty of the league isn’t rising and neither are the attention spans of navy blue America.

Running around a field for an hour and a half is for our children. We want hot dogs and HGH, bitch. Even the Canadians don’t care. All they want is Don Cherry, a Labatt’s Blue and a tight-checking match up between the Leafs and the Habs.

So, I’m a bit of a soccer fan.  Never played the game that much (except for that broken foot), but I enjoy watching Planet Earth’s Most Popular Sport.  I think it’s probably the most popular because it doesn’t take much more than a round ball and some flat land to play it, but hey, it’s still a great game.

Making like Pele and Beckenbauer 3 decades prior, the game’s most recognizable star is coming stateside in the twilight of his career.  Yes, David Beckham is suiting up for the LA Galaxy.  And if you’re interested in sporting one of this summer’s hottest consumer items, head over to SoccerPro and enter a guess as to when and where Becks will score his first U.S. goal.  The prize is a free Beckham jersey.

<— Just look at him.  What a sexy beast he is.  There’s no doubt that if you’re walking down the street (I mean, walking around a strip mall) in the U.S. and you’ve got “BECKHAM 23″ on your back, the ladies will come a flocking.

Don’t know anything about soccer?  That’s alright, SoccerPro’s contest doesn’t require that much intuition.  Just pick a game (probably one of the first 3 or 4) and a minute (they play 90) that you think old DB7 will put one in that huge net on the pitch.  Simple.  And if you mention this blog as the one that referred you, and you win, I get a $100 gift certificate to drop on some new Barca stuff in honor of my boy Thierry Henry.  Who cares if this isn’t a ’soccer blog’?  It is now.  Be prepared for 1 straight week of soccer talk.  I promise.

Last time’s quote comes to you from Chris Wilton, the retired tennis pro turned London socialite in Woody Allen’s Match Point.  This week, let David Beckham’s arrival in SoCal take us on a turn:

“The defenders only have themselves to blame there.”

You have to be “in the mood” to do just about anything effectively. I know I can’t drop down on the keypad and think of a good link bait idea, or send an inspirational email to a biz partner for that matter, unless I’m really feeling it. If you ain’t feeling it, you’re going to do a half-ass job and it’s probably not even worth the time you take to do it.

So, wait until you’re in the mood dammit. Or get yourself in the mood. Light some candles. Have a glass of wine. Do some push ups and listen to Trashed and Scattered (or similar) at a reasonably-high volume. Now take on the day.

Of course we all know that most tipsheets related to getting into the right mood revolve around getting a lady friend in the mood to let you have sex with her. And whether you’re after your bored housewife or that sophomore chick you’ve been eyeing, there’s something you can take back and try from these lists. They probably work for everyday life stuff too . . .