BlogNewcomb.com is my way of sharing my perspectives on current news stories.  For each current news item, I try to give you the news, plus I do my best to give you a deeper level perspective so that you understand why I thought any given news story was important.

My intention is to highlight the underlying themes that are overlooked by most daily blogs.  My hope is that many people will see these themes and apply them to the news that we hear on a daily basis.  If we understnad the context of stories and the underlying importance of the themes that they are part of, I believe that we all can become smarter citizens, business people and consumers.

Why am I getting so involved in Green?
A lot of people expected that when I left Powerset, my 5th startup, I would create my next startup.  in fact I had a slew of people and VCs who called to help me do just that - but I didn't.  The question is why?

As I mentioned before, I've had the opportunity to be a part of 5 companies and have helped to create over $2 billion dollars in exit value.  In each company, I helped build teams, careers and long term friendships that I value highly.  But I had really come to a time in my life where I wanted to do more than 1) build a company 2) with a product 3) that makes money 4) that ultimately makes me more wealthy.  I wanted more.

During the 2007 year, I really had some time to reflect on my career to thing about what was really most importnat to me as a person.  So I did 2 things.  I made a list of the accomplishments that I am most proud of and I made a list of the things I would most want to accomplished:

Things I have accomplished that I am most proud of:

1. I married my wife and we got it right;
2. I gained the ability to admit my fears of failing;
3. I have lost the fear of trying bold new things;
4. I have understood and accepted the weight of asking people to join me;
   
5. I have helped a special few to come of age, face their fears and find out who they are;
6. I have always tried to tell the truth to my team members even when it was bad news;
7. I have always tried to share my knowledge with as many people as possible expecting nothing in return;
   
8. I have helped others to create their own companies and succeed in the face of great challenges;
   
9. I have done what I thought was right even when it caused me great personal loss;
10. I have failed and gotten back up and tried again without hesitation

Things I want to accomplish:

1. I would like to have children and get that right;
   
2. I would like to play a role in helping our government and other governments understand the importance of creating sustainable societies;
3. I would like to play a role in helping to create a real alliiance between governments, businesses and people to accomplish the goals of sustainability;
4. I would like to help bring the conversations about sustainability from blaming to problem solving;
5. I would like to help people to understand businesses and business to hear the people;
   
6. I would like to help lead an effort to create a replicable campus where the basics of infrastructure are created to support the effort to make our world sustainable - ie. media, banking, government, venture capital;
7. I would like to create new types of companies that enable the average person to have a direct impact on sustainability;
8. I would like to create a new career for myself where doing the right thing comes first and making money is not part of the equation, but merely a side-effect

After writing the list I realized two things 1) subconsciously I want to be a writer for West Wing and 2) I need to quit my job and do something Green 

So what did I do?
Well, I quit my job at Powerset, where I worked as the COO and founder of the company.  To make sure that I follow up on my claim that I always try to tell the truth, I wanted to confirm exactly why I left Poweret.  1) I wanted to move into the Green space, in fact I notified my fellow founders in early September that I had found what I wanted to do and I was going to do it 2) I had a serious falling out with Barney, one of the other founders (as he confirms in his blog) because we did not see eye to eye on many issues that were important to me and I decided that I had to act even at risk of great personal loss.

What am I focusing on now?
Now I am focused on three initiatives:

1. leading the push to get Green Campus project built in the San Francisco that represents a template Green city that other countries can copy.  I can't say much more about this project then that for now, but it will be something that I will update you on when I can;
   
2. founding a corporate sustainability project to create a private network and conferences for sustainability officers, venture capitalists, banks and lawyers designed to help change corporate sustainability from being something that's nice to something that's profitable
3. creating a social meetup group that enables the techies to meet the greenies, thus bridging the gap that now exists; and
   
4. creating and launching my blog, www.blognewcomb.com to publicize and discuss key issues revolving around sustainability. 
   

My goal is to help, where ever I can, to create the tipping point in the sustainability movement by pushing initiatives in government, business and the broader social landscape.

Feel free to contact me at newcomb.steve@yahoo.com.

Posted by Steve Newcomb on January 28, 2008 10:53 AM | Permalink