News broke this morning that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has disclosed he has a hormone imbalance that lead to his steady decline in weight this past year. Rumors about him on his deathbed, I suppose, are greatly exaggerated. I've been on the fence regarding whether he was right or wrong to not share this information earlier. A person's health is nobody's business but their own. But as the CEO of a very public company, doesn't he have the obligation to his shareholders to disclose any and all information that might affect the health of the company they own? Put it that way, the answer seems clear. However, put it another way like so - as the owner of a business, do you have the right to ask about the private health matters of your employees? Your answer may be different.
 
In the end, I think that Apple has always been a secretive company and Steve Jobs has always been very tight lipped about his personal life. However, I think that this whole thing could have been diffused very quickly by either offering full disclosure early on - "Steve is undergoing tests to figure out why he's losing weight. We've ruled out a return of his cancer and the best medical team in the country is on the case. They have assured us that his life is not in any danger." Or by having a very clear succession plan - "The success of Apple can be attributed to many good people, not just Steve. In the event that Steve wishes to step down, it'll be in the good hands of Person X." One thing I'll give Microsoft is that the ascension of Ballmer to the throne was gradual and very clearly laid out. You can at least rule out any succession ambiguity as the cause of their recent woes.

So I figured out how to take screenshots of what is on my iPhone. You need to have the 2.0+ software upgrade, then press the power and Home button at the same time (don't hold or it will reset the phone). The screen flashes and then you'll hear the camera click. Whatever you had on the screen will be in your Camera Roll.
 
Here's a screenshot of a new game I'm playing called Strategery. One of the developers used to do some work for us (Sumul, he's great!). The games pretty simple to learn but hard to master, especially on the harder settings. I'm about to crush the computer in this screenshot.
 
Click here to get the game from the iTunes App Store and here's the website for the game itself.

So news comes today that Google has pulled out of its proposed search advertising deal with Yahoo. I once said that an independent Yahoo is good for the entire online ecosystem. I still believe that today but I have a hard time thinking that Yahoo can survive without the added cash-flow that the Google deal would have provided. The latest amended deal sent to Congress would have limited the time-frame of the deal to two years and set the maximum revenue that Yahoo could generate from Google at 25% of its search revenue. I thought this was a great compromise but I guess that wasn't what Google had originally wanted.

One of the worst feelings in the professional world is having to let people go not due to performance (that's easy) but due to financial constraints. I've been reading about the latest rounds of lay-offs in our sector and it's pretty sad.

It's times like this that I'm so glad we've decided to stay lean. Yeah, maybe a project gets delayed here and there but I'll take that over having to tell someone they lost their job not because it was their fault but because it was my fault for not planning properly ahead of time. It's just unfortunate that it took a soft investment market for companies to realize they should pay attention to pesky little things like revenues and/or profits. My personal philosophy has always been that if cash flow cannot support a full-time employee (salary, benefits, taxes, etc) PLUS at least 25%, then don't hire that person. If it's a revenue generating position, have the person work on commission until they generate enough cash flow per the last sentence. Maybe it's time start-ups began running their businesses like nearly all the other businesses out there (ie, make profits now) instead of waiting for that next round or the buy out.

I'm reading Jessica Livingston's "Founder at Work" book and one particular chapter is quite appropriate. It's about how Charles Geschke and John Warnock only needed about $50K to start Adobe and that shortly thereafter they got $1 million plus contracts from guys like Apple and others to license their printing software. Why don't entrepreneurs think like that any more? Build something, make more money than you spent building it, repeat. Maybe that's just too pedestrian for today's founders but that's one way to ensure your business is recession proof. Another great read is Paul Graham's article about starting a technology company during a recession.