But we all know that making a lame heartburn joke is a cop out for an answer. (So is saying I’m going to get a tatoo when I’m too afraid to pull the trigger.)

It’s interesting how in our 20’s we start off eagerly anticipating and wildly celebrating our birthdays (21 shots!) but that unbridled enthusiasm gradually turns into stressing and self-reflection contemplation as we get closer to 30. This does seem to make sense. Aging is mandatory. No matter how much you’re killing it, you have one less day to kill it in life than you did the day before. So the number 30 is certainly daunting. Heck, it was enough pieces of silver for Judas to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:15). One of the rallying cries of the 60’s was “Don’t trust anyone over thirty”. You can’t even watch adult content (XXX) without thinking about your roman numerical value and that you are indeed now an ADULT.

So I would be lying if I said that turning 30 isn’t at all intimidating. It is. But I believe that angst should go away as easily as a TUMS alleviates acid indigestion.

The thing is I do feel like a full-fledged adult these days. In both my professional career and personal relationships I’ve sensed my life perspective gradually shift over the last few years. I now, more than ever, recognize what I want to accomplish in life. That’s a good feeling. To know what I want. I spent much of my 20’s trying to figure that out. The NY Times writer David Brooks once wrote an article about the Odyssey Years as a stage in life. At the time, it helped me make sense of where I was in life. Now, while I’m still searching, seeking and learning I also feel like I know who I am and I know what I want more than I have ever before.

It’s always been important for me to understand myself. I’m wired to be a bit counter and I tilt more towards the independent and unaffected side. I never cared much about grades in school and set my own standards on how much time I spent on studying and homework. So I’ve just used that as a defining example of my ethos. I never thought much about how others perceive me or what I should change about myself….until recently. As I mature, I try to better understand myself, especially my weaknesses in my personality, values and views. Instead of wishing I can change who I am, I try to be more aware of how I can compensate for my shortcomings to improve my relationships with others and reach my goals in life.

I’ve developed an interest in learning and reading about emotional intelligence. In a nutshell it studies how a person perceives, uses, understands and manages emotions. I naturally do some of this stuff really well. I’m also naturally horrible at some of it. I like recognizing that and knowing when I’m falling short of my own expectations. FYI, my friend Evil Roy Slade has the highest level of emotional intelligence of anyone I’ve ever met and someone who I love learning from (even withstanding his west coast wedding speeches! jk)

It always made total sense for me to work hard at figuring out what I want out of my life. That might sound dandy but it’s sometimes tough to do especially when some of my desires go against the grain. I’ve struggled with this at times. I’ve questioned why I sometimes make things harder for myself. If I kept it simpler would it be easier? But I’ve learned that if I want to be happy and satisfied it’s become more evident what I should do in both everyday decisions as well as larger life choices.

I’d like to think in my thirties I won’t make as many decisions but rather react to life based on who I know I am. But as soon as I think I figured out one phase of life I realize that just means a new phase is about to begin. As college was ending, I remember worrying that my post-college life was never going to be as fun. I couldn’t even picture myself in this new life. But then I went out and lived life and had all these new and rewarding experiences. Maybe they weren’t as fun but in many ways they were better and made me happier. Now when I look to my next phase of my life I think about all the things that will happen with my career and my family. I see many of my friends already in this phase of life (or will be starting April 6th) and they love it. I have no idea how I’m going to be the business leader, husband, brother, son, friend and father that I envision for myself. Unlike at the end of college, I can picture all of it for myself. That feels great. It makes aging something I can casually blog about instead of stress about.

As my birthday approached, I unexpectedly found myself quite relaxed. Instead of trying to plan some kind of amazing big to-do I invited some friends and family over to my apartment to come out and playayayay. We ate dessert, had a silly string sneak attack, awarded each other trophies, and watched the college basketball slam dunk contest and the movie The Warriors (starring Neal Gold!). It was exactly the kind of thing, hanging with my favorite people, that I most enjoy doing with my free/social time these days. Just recognizing that that would make me the most happy is a level of comfort and maturity that I am enjoying.

One of my favorite historical baseball players is the Negro League pitcher Satchel Paige. He pitched well into his 60’s but may be best known for his memorable sayings (which I sometimes tweet out). Old Satch once said “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?” I’d like to think I would still be 30.

In just one week Stacey has sold over 850 calendars. It’s a staggering amount and more than she could have ever imagined. Her new goal is to sell 1000 and I know she would be delighted if you could help her get there.

I’ve had a front row seat (or at least an open IM conversation window) since before she launched and have been rooting her on. I love to see people challenge themselves in an entrepreneurial way. Stacey works for a company that does custom promotional/gift product distribution. Her friend Stephanie is a talented photographer. Creating a cool calendar makes lots of sense. I also love to see people put their time and effort into things they are passionate about. It seems like the personal reward is always there no matter if the outcome or result goes your way. If you talk to Stacey you will see she has the fire in her to make this work.

If one of Stacey’s goals was to inspire it certainly has rubbed off on me.

Over three years ago I blogged about wanting be more involved in a philanthropic cause. I wanted to devote some of my time to a project that was more selfless. I wanted to work with family and friends that I may never have a chance to work with in my professional career. I wanted my time to be spent on something I helped create rather than contribute to something I might not be passionate about.

I’ve been thinking about this for years trying to formulate exactly how I want it all to come together…and then to muster up the courage to go out and do it. A few months ago I emailed my friend Kras sharing some of the themes, ideas, and goals I wanted to achieve through the organization I wanted to create. Kras is measured and thoughtful so it took him some time to warm up to the idea. After a bunch of conversations I think we are very much on the same page and both excited to move forward in 2011. When I received Stacey’s original note the first thing I did was forward it on to Kras with some more thoughts to incorporate into our plans.

One of my major life goals for 2011 will be to try and get this project off the ground. I’m partly writing this blog post as another way to motivate and challenge myself to follow through on this goal. I hope to be sharing more information with you, as well as asking for your support, contribution, passion and skills in the near future. Stay tuned…and buy a damn calendar!

My perceptions have changed a bit since I’ve moved downtown in June. It’s a different vibe from what I’m used too — unfamiliar and exciting. There’s more cool stuff on my block (Flight Club, Strand Book Store, Mexicana Mama, guy selling marijuana gas masks) than there is on the entire UES combined (unless you get jazzed up by Bugaboo strollers). I now do most of my food shopping at the Farmer’s Market in Union Square where I gladly hand over my money as I support local, organic slow food. Yup, I’m beginning to understand the emotion my buddy Greenblatt must feel when he first sees the bright lights of NYC while driving on the LIE after being in his car for dozens upon dozens of minutes. It’s just like when Piper Perabo moved to NYC from Jersey to further her career (in music or as a slutty bartender??).

I’ve recently strung together a few cool NYC activities. I had off for Columbus Day so decided to jump on the ferry and head out to Ellis Island. The weather was great and the Registry Room is one of the most unique and historical spaces in the city. I not only got the opportunity to see my Poppy’s name engraved on the wall but I also got a chance to stick it to the Galitziana by sneezing on their names. If only Lou Dobbs was around back in the day we would have put a halt to the influx of those uneducated, sugary gefilta fish eating potty mouths.

Last weekend I checked out the Big Bambu exhibit on the roof of the Met. It kind of reminded me of an oversized Sukkot (yeah, I also went to Sukkah City!) inspired by Indiana Jones.

Last Sunday I wandered around the village during the Halloween Parade. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for years so was psyched to see all the weirdness for myself. It’s begging for a blog post of it’s own but I’m better off keeping the freak show repressed in my memory.

All three of these activities were unplanned. I kind of did them on the spur of the moment. For Ellis Island, I actually had a dream about going there earlier in the week. One drawback of being lazy/spontaneous is that I often do these activities on my own (Ellis Island, Farmer’s Market) or with whoever happens to be around at that moment (ie. my sisters, or in the case of the Met and the Parade, Mr. Hillman). I think Hillman only joins me just so he can “check in” at all these cultural activities on Four Square and Facebook.

The entire point of this blog post though is to list out some of the NYCentric activities that I want to do before this year is out. It’s getting cold and I’m on The DL for rec sports with my bad back so have lots of dead time. Let me know if any of them interest you as I’d love some good company. Hillman said he won’t mind if you come as long as he can still check in on Facebook and tell people he was there and that you missed out.

Alternatively, I was considering naming this blog post Why Littyhoops needs a girlfriend

Love to hear what you have planned. Truth is I’ll probably get lazy and only do a sliver of these things.
Without Further Ado…

ACTIVITIES

Brooklyn Bowl
Williamsberg, Brooklyn
1) Go To Williamsberg 2)Act Like a Hipster 3) Throw some rocks.
Lewbowski Fest on Nov 4 or Matisyahu there on November 29 or 30th.

Adam Corolla
Nov 5 at Caroline’s
Already have tickets to Mr. Krasman’s favorite podcaster.

New York City Marathon Party
November 7 on the UES
Come to my sister’s Lisa crib for a great view of the Marathon from her balcony.

Pee Wee Herman Show
I’ll only go to this show if I can sit between Neal and Greenblatt.

Everything You Know Is Pong Event
November 10 at Lincoln Center
Interesting people playing ping pong.

Chinatown Arcade
8 Mott Place – Chinatown
Who knew there was arcades in the City. Would have never told my parents to move to the burbs.

Russian Bath House
10th between 1st and A
Scooped up a 5 visit pass on LivingSocial so might just get yourself a free schvitz.

SPORTS
St. John’s Basketball
Carnesseca Arena – Columbia (11/17), Wagner (12/1), St. Bonaventure (12/7),
Rose Hill – at Fordham on 12/10
MSG for Holiday Festival on 12/20, 12/21
My goal is to make every single home game for this season (and for the rest of my life).

New York Knicks @ MSG
Down to check out the new squad. Like Felton and Amare. Don’t ask me why the have the two worst starters in the entire league (Landry Fields, Mozgov)

FOOD
Hill Country
Monday Nights
All You can eat BBQ. Who likes meat sweats?

Max Brenner
Kind of feel like a 15 year old girl with this one but I’e never been there and I walk by it every day. Chocolate Pizza? Interesting.

Il Vegabonda
East 62nd Street
Always liked how this place was hidden on a side street and bocce is a sport so must be kind of fun, right?

Elio’s
84th and 2nd
Either I was going to take my sister here or she was going to take me. Can’t remember. Heard it’s some of this best Italian in the city though.

Kingswood
10th and Greenwich
Haven’t been in awhile but one of my favorite spots to go with a group. Even better if you go downstairs afterwards.

LIVE MUSIC
Matt Costa
November 4 at Bowery Ballroom
Jack Johnson’s understudy. Better voice. Play him on my iPod all the time to relax.

Kings of Leon
November 16 at MSG

Morning Benders
Nov 18 at Webster Hall
Thanks to Mr. Rosen for helping me discover these guys.

Wu Tang
December 29 at Best Buy Theater
It’s always hit or miss but if they’re on it’s old school rap at it’s finest.

NIGHT TIME
The Box
I’ve beeen wanting to go to this place since it opened but guess I’m not cool enough. Need to make it happen one weekend.

BRAINY STUFF
Alan Dershowitz
November 4 at 92nd Street Y
Discussing Israel. I don’t follow Dershowitz that closely but like how he’s an ardent supporter of Israel.

Michigan Professor Ralph Williams
Nov 17 at Park East Synogogue
He taught me the Bible in college. He has a really big brain, and really long fingers and combined it is both breath-taking and goes straight over my head.

Hayden Planetarium Space Shows
Museum of Natural History
Double feature narrated by Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford in planetarium with seats that shake. I’m in.

TRAVEL
Boca/Miami
November 18-24
Going with the sisters to visit the Nanna and plan to stay a few extra days to kick it.

Someplace Cool
Christmas to New Year’s
Have no plans now but want to go away that week. Maybe Cali (what you think Cali friends??)

—
One final thought as I bring this back to the digital world. You may have heard about the new mobile/web app Four Square. I mentioned it earlier in this post and it’s steadily gaining popuarity here in NYC and around the country. Four Square allows you to check-in to places that you are at. You get silly little badges and points for checking in that are pretty much worthless (still people do it so what do I know). What interests me is when Four Square will start to make recommendations based off of where I have gone previously and what my friends/networks are doing regularly.

Another intersting digital service is Plancast. This allows you to share your upcoming schedule in a very similar way to what I’ve just done in this blog. You can also see what my contacts are up to and makes it much easier to see who’s doing cool stuff.

After 29 years of cushioning my spine as I pulled softballs foul, banked in three-pointers, jumped up and down on the couch watching St. John’s lose and sat hunched over my computer playing with the internet, a disc in my back finally fragmented.

I’ve had mild back pain for much of the summer after somehow tweaking it in May. I went to my doc and he said to rest for a few weeks and then be diligent in stretching in the morning and when I exercise. I never fully recovered to 100% but was up to about 95% when I stepped onto the basketball court in my Omar Cook jersey (a hand-me-down from Bersin) last weekend. I actually don’t think I hurt it playing basketball, but rather sometime later in the day. When I woke up Sunday I couldn’t move.

I went back to my doc on Monday who was concerned by the numbness and weakness in my left leg. He was most alarmed that I couldn’t walk on my heels. I tried to tell him that heel-walking wasn’t all that important and that Vant and I could replace it with another special move in our surprise dance-off for Wolk’s wedding. In fact, foot drop kind of gives me a natural (and hopefully temporary) pimp limp.

Next up was an MRI. Experiencing an MRI is like being buried alive in a coffin at an alarm clock convention. To calm down and chill out, I followed my friend Roy’s advice from when he had an MRI and sang Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits volume 3 to myself in my head. Yup, right there in the medical imaging machine I went walking through the jungle of doubt, to the river so deep, searching for something….

According to my MRI report, disc desiccation and disc space narrowing is present in my back at L5-S1. An ovoid vertically oriented left-sided disc fragment is present at the L5 level. The fragment attains the left L4 lateral recess, coalescing with the ipsilateral L5 nerve root. Um, yeah, whatever. Let’s gingerly move down to the next paragraph to discuss what this all means.

My doc told me I have a herniated disc (L5-S1) that is pinching the nerves that run along my spine and all the way down my leg and foot. This was causing pain behind my knee, numbness in my foot and weakness throughout my leg.

Next I was referred to a neurosurgeon at Lenox Hill. This doc was thorough and detailed in explaining what was happening to my back. He used plastic spine toys and my MRI results to show how my disc had ruptured squeezing out a jelly-like substance that was exerting pressure on my spinal nerves. (This brought back the same thought I had everyday during Biology class in my sophomore year of high school — why did Hashem make the human body so damn complicated?) This pressure was causing the pain felt down my leg. The pain should eventually go away as the inflammation in my back subsides. The weakness and numbness are of more serious concern.

He outlined three different paths to treating the injury. The first is plain old rest with eventual physical therapy. The second is epidural steroid injections (cortisone) into the spine to further reduce inflammation. The third is surgery to relieve the pressure on the nerve. While his official recommendation was surgery (he did provide a disclaimer that he is a surgeon and performing surgery is how he makes a living), the doctor did suggest I give it some time for the inflammation to go down and see if my back and leg improved. He also thought it wise to get another opinion – perhaps from an Orthopedist.

At this point I hit up my good friend Doctor Beyda to help make sense of this all. Even though Dave isn’t an expert in this field, he’s a trusted friend that certainly knows more about this than me and can help advise me through the medical process. It doesn’t take long after hearing the idea of back surgery to feel a bit overwhelmed. Dave sent my MRI results around to some Ortho friends and explained to me that there are indeed a bunch of different ways to treat this injury. It was very much in-line with the options that the neurosurgeon laid out. Dave also went to work helping me figure out which doctor I should see for another opinion. Before you think Dov is a saint, realize he still has not got back to me about the mosquitoe issues.

I’ve been lucky enough to have great health in my life and never really have had any serious ailment. It’s been striking to me (at least in this particular case) to realize how much of medical treatment is still left up to human interpretation and personal preference and how unprepared the average person is to make those decisions. If you asked me last week what lumbar was I would have said it’s what Albert Pujols uses to destroy baseballs. Now, I’m trying to determine if I should consider surgery or seek additional medical opinions all with the distraction of a tight lower back and a gimpy, stingy leg. It’s a lot to deal with if you’re not up for it.

At some point during the science lesson from the neurosurgeon I realized I had this under control. Since I was overwhelmed, I was purposely slowing him down by asking really basic questions to see how he would answer them and then working my way to the more critical questions. Nothing he said seemed unreasonable and each answer was adding clarity to the situation. Then I realized that being in a really tight spot, without much experience, full understanding or complete information is what I do every day in running a cash-strapped, fledgling business. The way I get through that is by recognizing there is a optimal solution to everything…and there always will be.

As I’ve been diligently working my way through my options, it’s amazing how many people have had back injuries or herniated discs. I can’t feel sorry for myself because I would then have to feel sorry for all these other people too and eventually create a facebook group or something. Just organizing all the information is exhausting. Being a jewish dude from Long Island trying to get help on back issues is like trying to get tax credit advice at a Tea Party convention. Everybody has some magic solution that seems kind of loony!

If the worst of the pain is behind me this is not all that life-altering of a thing. Yeah, it sucks that I have to sit out the fall season of Softball and Dodgeball and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to go to the gym or run around next (let alone wake up without pain). I have a recurring bad dream that I’m a kid playing ball outside with my friends and no matter how hard I try I can’t throw/kick the ball more than a few inches. I guess I can cross that dream off my list of things to subconsciously worry about. I was able to go to see both Jay-z/Eminem and Vampire Weekend last week so the pain can’t stop the music in me. I’ve already weaned myself off of Advil and being judicious in taking pain medication. Hopefully the strength and feeling in my leg will return shortly as well. It will take some patience as it can take over a year to fully recover but it just seems so inevitable that I’ll be fine soon. With a positive attitude, I’m fine right now. Wow, I think I just gave myself a pep talk.

There’s definitely also something to be learned here (besides appreciating your good health!). I’m seeing where I can improve my decision making process and how I interact with others in working together to make decisions. I’m quick to write off people if I don’t think they are using the same thought framework as me. I’ve had trouble being patient in talking through options with my parents. Like any caring parents they’re worried and concerned for my well-being. I get wrapped up by the fact that fear is clouding their judgments and preventing them from looking at options objectively. In many ways they’re invested in my health as much as me (and worry more than me.) I probably need to figure out how to help them feel more a part of the process and let them know how they can help me. I’m also a little trigger happy in determining if someone’s advice is valuable or not. Despite what I sometimes think, I don’t know everything in the world. Funny thing is that many of my colleagues and friends might say the very same thing. Patience, L-Hoops. Patience.

Wishing you all a healthy 5771!

How did this happen?

I’d characterize my most dominating personality traits to be independence, efficiency and free/stubborn thinking. For most of the last decade the independent side has driven much of my career direction. I’ve gravitated into entrepreneurial positions where I can better control my own destiny and have the freedom to carve my own path. Even within those positions, I’ve tried to isolate my performance from the rest of the team believing that otherwise I’d be slowed down. It didn’t help that I worked in unstructured work environments.

Now I’ve also always been driven by efficiency. In my schoolwork I was more concerned with doing the right amount of studying/work (judged by me) than with the final result or grade. Socially, I’m definitely on the lazy side of the spectrum. For better or worse this has also carried into my professional career. I don’t like to work hard unless it’s the only way to get something done. More often than not, I’ve been able to figure out shortcuts and this is much more satisfying to me. One positive is that I’m usually able to fully push my ego aside and focus on the end result or goal.

Finally, I’m a stubborn free thinker. I didn’t get accepted into my first five college choices. I was bummed out about it for awhile and one day my mom gave me that look that Brooklyn Jewish mothers have trademarked and told me that if I really wanted to get into any of those schools I could have. She was right. For whatever reason, I never bought into the path. I’d do it the same exact way all over again (Zelda, ayn rand, college hoops and fantasy sports over AP Euro studying= no brainer). I’ve had ample opportunities to follow easier career paths that could be less risky and more financially rewarding. I haven’t. I don’t want to just be successful by worldly standards. I want to be successful by my own standards (not going to get into what that means). I’ve worked in pervious organizations that have reached their goals but I was unimpressed by the way they did it. Right now, I’m kind of enamored with Tony Hsieh (Zappos) and Reed Hastings (NetFlix). They were both able to build successful companies on their own idealistic terms with their own ideal cultures.

As my career has advanced, I’ve started to realize that if I want to keep my independence it will limit my professional upside. A hired gun is just that – impactful and effective but lacking the real power of the person who hired him! Perhaps power and influence is more attractive than independence.

It seems to me that the best way to truly be powerful and influential is through management and leadership. A person who can galvanize a group of people to all work towards the same goal will always be stronger than the individual, right? I also believe that management skills are more transferable. No matter what situation, venture or project a leader can always use these skills they have developed. That seems way easier than trying to learn a new industry as well as I know digital sports media. Finally, I want to do things my way – and the only way that will happen is if I’m in a management position.

Even after writing all this mumbo jumbo I’m still trying to figure out why I’ve developed such a desire to be a leader. It’s a trait that I’ve never really exhibited before other than applying it to myself (and if I’m a leader of one than the jokes on me). I looked at the kids who were captain of my high school sports teams as ass-kissers or coach’s puppets. I never got why my buddy Hal wanted to be class president every year. Even now, very few of my friends/readers seem to have a strong prioritized desire to follow a leadership path (correct me if I’m wrong).

I’ve never had a truly great manager at any organization that I’ve ever been a part of. I don’t think this is uncommon though. A great leader is rare to find. It’s incredible difficult. It’s hard enough to manage yourself, get in your own mind, and control your own actions. Think about how hard it is to do that for a group of diverse people to all achieve a common goal.

I’m learning on the fly. I’m trusting my own instincts, trying to be extremely thoughtful, honest and soaking up as much as possible through blogs, books, conversations and advice. I’m hoping to develop a solid enough foundation so when I make mistakes I can recognize them and correct them with good decisions. I’m not a natural and for most of my life I’ve gravitated towards doings things that I’m naturally good at. It’s a weird feeling of self-awareness when I sense that I’m falling short. I try to challenge myself every day to be more considerate and less selfish. To show less frustration and more inspiration. To focus my thinking on the team and not myself. It’s my biggest professional challenge yet but hopefully I’m up to it.

It’s a bit scary for me to even put all these thoughts and ideas down on your computer screen (or in troy’s case mobile device because he doesn’t own a computer – no way you are still reading this triz!!). I’m not sure what I’m going to think when I look back and read this five or ten year from now. But I don’t think I’m getting any smarter or any sharper over the next decade (genetically, I’m destined to get fatter, snore louder and repeat myself more). But I do hope to become a better leader.

I appreciate the opportunity to share who I am in more detail. It often seems quite difficult to learn enough about a person from one piece of paper or a short and structured conversation. Therefore I’m going to use some of my previous blog posts, things I’ve written long before I knew about this opportunity, to better illustrate my accomplishments and interests. Each link below leads to a blog post that I’ve written over the years.

WORK SUCCESSES

Promotions

• Every major promotion that I’ve earned in my career has led to a new position being created within that organization.
• At my first full-time position at OCSN, it took me a few months to realize I was more interested in how I could help the company generate new revenue streams rather than update web pages as a web editor. It took a few more months for me to meet, greet and successful pitch the executives in the organization to create a new junior business development role for me.
• After OCSN was acquired by CSTV, I was the first person in the OCSN Carlsbad office to move to the CSTV New York City to help develop CSTV’s digital business.
• After working on March Madness On Demand and launching a college fantasy football application (profitable in its first year) I was promoted to Director of Online Business Development to focus on online gaming and community. I was the youngest (and most inexperienced) Director in the organization and reported directly to the CEO.
• As the first employee and part of the founding team at Sportsvite, I’ve grown with the organization. I am part of the management team and now take it upon myself to improve in my leadership and management role while running business development, marketing and sales and contributing to overall strategy.

Management

• As part of the management team at Sportsvite, I currently lead a team of three people (was as high as five) for marketing partnerships, customer acquisition and sponsorship/advertising sales.
• I developed an intern program at Sportsvite (cheap, smart brainpower is invaluable to a startup) in which over ten interns have successfully completed with many going on to take full-time positions in digital media.
• As the youngest Director at CSTV, and with no direct reports or budget, I had to manage up and laterally to secure resources and support to lead digital projects in creating a blog network, podcasting solution and college fantasy football application.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS

• Entered college with 38 credits and sophomore standing due to Advanced Placement courses and test results in high school.
• Accepted into undergraduate business school at University of Michigan (2-year program) and graduated with a BBA degree with distinction (3.5 GPA).
• Completed independent studies in online marketing for a local laundry mat and a search engine optimization project for my own college basketball website, Littyhoops.com
• Volunteered at local elementary school and worked as private tutor (5-10 Hrs per week).

LEADERSHIP

Work

• I believe every startup needs a true leader to instill confidence in the entire team and to pave the way to success. I’ve tried to grow into that role as Sportsvite has matured by leading our business units, making personnel decisions and managing investor’s expectations.
• When I first started at Sportsvite I had no experience in the interviewing and hiring process. I’ve now hired 5 full-time employees and numerous part-time resources and interns.

Littyhoops Blog

• My personal blog has developed an audience of 100 email subscribers that consists of family, friends, colleagues and others. I often try to write about topics that are as interesting to them as it is to me. Things like business networking, failure, and personal growth. This leads to both online and actual conversations with others who share my interests. There are so many great reasons why I love to blog.
• As an early digital adopter I have shared my thoughts on new digital products or services including Twitter, Kayak, Hulu, Kiva, DonorsChoose and even
  ChatRoulette!

• I also write about trends in digital, advertising and media as well as emerging opportunitis in local, television distribution and Facebook.

Digital Media & Sports

• I’ve organized and hosted multiple events in digital sports including nextSports and the first Sports Marketing 2.0 event.
• I’ve authored guest blog posts for Business Insider including this recent post on the new NCAA media rights agreements with CBS and Turner.
• Presented this presentation to Wharton Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Club

Littyhoops College Basketball Website

• Created Littyhoops.com college basketball website during college (before there were blogs!) and taught myself development and design skills, created content and managed online marketing, SEO, Adsense and partnerships.

My First Job

• I worked for four years during high school for the Police Athletic League. I started as a referee and advanced to hiring and managing a staff of 10 refs each weekend to organize and manage sports activities at multiple field or gym locations in my town. I reported to the police officer in charge (who wrote me a college recommendation) and wrote my college essay about the values I developed from experience.

Sports Captain

• I’m the manager or captain of multiple rec sports teams each year. This sometimes thankless job is part of the inspiration behind the Sportsvite concept!

OTHER STUFF

Hobbies

• Started a book club and have a blog recapping the books that I read.
• My favorite authors are Kurt Vonnegut, Ernest Hemmingway, F.Scott Fitzgerald and John Irving.
• Subscribe to multiple blogs that I read daily through Google RSS Reader.
• I consider myself a writer – thanks in large part to all my blogging.

Travel

• I’ve backpacked, and blogged, my way through Australia and Europe and have also explored India. My most recent trip was to Costa Rica. I’m trying to figure out how to get to Africa and the Far East next!

Professional Organizations

• Early member and active participant of nextNY organization. Organized multiple events in digital sports and held first feedback focus session.

Sports

• I play on numerous recreational sports teams including basketball, multiple softball teams and a dogeball team consisting of nextNY members.
• Training to run a sprint triathlon this fall.
• I’m a huge sports fan and spend a chunk of my free time obsessing over the Yankees, Knicks, Giants, University of Michigan sports and St. John’s basketball. I’m a collge basketball fanatic and take a family trip to watch the NCAA tournament every year!
• Yes, I’m addicted to fantasy sports as a participant and as an amazing business opportunity. I’ve recently contributed to the creation of one of the first twitter-based fantasy sports games.

Volunteer Work

• Part of Big Brother/Big Sister type mentorship program during college.
• Interested in creating my own charity or foundation and becoming more involved in social entrepreneurship.

If this blog post seems like I’m tooting my own horn that’s because I kind of am. One thing that I’ve learned from working at a startup is that there’s nobody else to toot your horn for you (especially at the start). Most people just see a pile of scraps and raw materials and it’s your job to convince them your building a Delorean DMC-12. The only way to do that is to believe in it yourself. This doesn’t happen by boasting, bragging or having all the answers – but rather from being honest, passionate and willing to listen and directly answer all their questions.

I often think about how I should position myself to others. Many people that I speak too don’t feel like they do a good job of concisely and effectively sharing who they are and what they want to accomplish. It’s hard and it takes some planning and practice. Next time I need to do it I’ll have this blog post (both in my mind and right here) as reference.

At first I thought the story was pointless. Like Howard Cosell’s persona, I didn’t really get it. But the story has stuck in my head. In fact, I now think the story probably perfectly exemplifies why Cosell was such an outsized personality. He told it how it was was, no matter the reaction. To him, there was no other way to tell it.

It’s easy to try and be the person that you want to be or that others want you to be. Everyone has there own idea of what is attractive or impressive and we usually try to be just that. We’re trained at a young age to please our parents, teachers and coaches. We learn in high school to crave acceptance and approval. It makes life easier/smoother.

What I find very impressive are people who understand who they are. People that are comfortable in their own skin. It’s calming to be around them because they seem calm with themselves.

I would like to think I’m comfortable with who I am. To do this, I often think about what I am not. It is disappointing when I realize my actions sometimes fall short of my intentions. But it is also very telling. I’d also like to be a confident person. To do this, I try to figure out everything which I’m insecure about. Nobody is good at everything. The trick is recognizing what I suck at.

I like to use sports analogies so here is one. I think I’m a good 3 point shooter. I love to shoot 3 pointers. I love it even more when they go in. But my career 3 point shooting percentage is probably 15% (less if you ask Hillman or Vant). It is below average. I’d much rather recognize that, stop shooting 3’s and do things I’m good at. That is what will allow me to win.

When you really know yourself I don’t think you ever have to make a crucial decision in life. I think you just contemplate your choices and the decisions are made based on who you are. Whenever I hear about somebody agonizing over a big decision I wonder what they’ve been (or haven’t been) doing their whole life up until that decision that is making it so difficult. If you have to think about shooting the 3 pointer, it’s not going to go in.

It’s not always easy when you know yourself though. It’s easy to go with the flow. But sometimes your flow is different than everybody else’s. Then it becomes more difficult to get where you want to go. To be very honest, I’m unsatisfied with my accomplishments so far to date in my life. What I am proud of are those decisions in which I followed my own flow when it was going against the current. I hope to do that more. If I do, I know I will accomplish what I want too.

When I meet a new person I don’t want to impress them. I would rather them just see me for who I really am. I’m not sure if there really is a way to do this succinctly and that’s probably why I suck at small talk and chit chat.

I write all this because I’ve been thinking about what I want to do in this my 29th year. The more I think the more I come to the same conclusion. I have a pretty good idea of who I am. I know what makes me tick. I know what I can’t tolerate. I know where I want to go. So all I really need to do is work hard to put myself in the right position. Because when I get the ball in the post, my sweet up-and-under move somehow works just about every time (no matter who is guarding me).

Here is an entertaining interview between Howard Cosell and Muhammod Ali where both men tell it like it is…

There’s a whole crew of Litvacks in the world beyond my immediate and extended family. In fact, there are over 230 of them on Facebook (with another 1100 that spell their name Litvak) including a Gustavo and a Zohar! Many of them seem to live in Canada. There is a state representative in Utah named David Litvack. I’m not sure how a jew wins an election in Utah but a hearty mazel tov to Dave. Sandy Litvack is a prominent anti-trust litigator who used to be on the corporate management team at Disney and now picks battles with Google. Heck, I just learned about Lyida Litvyak who was a female ace fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Force during WWII and shot down 12 enemy planes. Hopefully one day Brian will be more than just a starving blogger.

Often, when I meet an old Jewish dude (rabbis, jewelers and Boca Raton country club members) and they learn my name they have a similar peculiar reaction. They knowingly raise their eyebrows and go “Ahhh, you’re a Litvack. The Litvacks and the Galitzianers!“. Never have I been able to get to the bottom of what this means exactly. I do know it has something to do with jewish people from eastern europe. But that is the extent of it. I recently asked my Nana (a Litvack by marriage to poppy Saul) about this. She raised her eyebrows and said “Ahhh, the Litvacks and the Galitzianers”. When I asked her what that means, she replied that she had no idea. If she ever did know, she had forgotten long ago!

The other suspect occurrence which happens occasionally is that I will meet someone with a different last name who will tell me they are a Litvack. My natural response is to respond “No, you are clearly not” and then stare at them really obnoxiously (sometimes growing up in Long Island comes in handy!) until we move on to the next subject.

With nowhere to turn, I logged into cyberspace to see what I could dig up and find out what the heck is up with a Galitzianer. Hashem, was I shocked with what I uncovered.

The noun Litvak is actually Yiddish for Lithuanian Jew (although Litvaks also resided in Latvia and Belarus). These mitnagged jews were characterized by their opposition to Hasidism and Hasidic teachings. Jews began living in Lithuania as early as the 8th century and numbered over 250,000 by 1923 with most being of Litvak origin. In the 20th century, many Litvaks emigrated to North and South America, Great Britain, Australia and South Africa. There are now under 4,000 Jews left in Lithuania.

Blah, blah, blah. Enough with the history lesson. There’s a reason why European History was the most boring class of my life and it goes way beyond Dr. Weiss’s crappy lectures about the de’Medici family!

Now, this is where things get spicier than a kosher KFC sandwich.

According to the credible sources at Wikipedia, Litvaks were considered to be more intellectual and stoic than their rivals, the Galitzianers. My people thought of Galitzianers as irrational and uneducated. The rivalry was so intense that Ira Steingroot dubbed it the Ashekenazi version of the Hatfieds and the McCoys in his Yiddish Knowledge Cards. Besides acting like Ashekenazi trash, the Galitzianers also butchered the dialect and crossed the “Gefilte Fish Line” by favoring rich, heavily sweetened dishes.

When a Litvak prays he stands rock still and only moves his lips.
When a Galitizianer prays he gets on his knees and begs to pagan idols like Prince Akeem’s servents in Coming to America.

When a Litvack recites the Friday night Kiddush he sits.
A Galitizianer is already too drunk and blacked out to say the prayer!

Litvaks are characterized as being rational, dogmatic and authoritarian.
Galitzianers are loopy, loony and subservient.

Litvaks eat fish like normal people.
Galitzianers sprinkle powdered sugar on their fish like it’s funnel cake or a Big Sexy Pop.

Modern Day Litvaks like March Madness, the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft Combine.
Modern Day Galitzianers watch Jon and Kate Plus Eight.

Ever hear a polish joke. Yup, that’s referring to Galitzianers who originated in the south-eastern corner of Poland.

Most Galician jews lived poorly, working in small workshops as craftsman. Indeed some were physicians, intellectuals and lawyers but most probably worked in waste management.

In the Litvack spirit, for those who would like to read a more intellectual debate on the argument check out this argument between college professors from 1976 in Commentary Magazine.

There are all kinds of famous and acclaimed Litvaks including oligarch Roman Abramovich, ground breaking politician Harvey Milk, Sacha Baron Cohen, Bob Dylan, Menachim Begin, Ariel Sharon, writer Amos Oz, composer Leonard Cohen, painter Marc Chagall, the Three Stooges and Pink (on her mom’s side!).

I’ve never met a person with the last name of Galitzianer but rumor has it that famous Galician jews include Amy Winehouse, Roseanne Barr, Bobby Fischer, Monica Lewinsky, Julius and Ethle Rosenberg and Lizzy Grubman!

This Lent, I’m swearing off all Galitzianers once and for all! And you should too before they antique you with confectioner’s sugar!

And if you ever were curious to see the Litvak vs. Galitzianer rendition of “Who’s On First” here you go…

Besides a few random days off I didn’t take much time off in 2009. When I did, I was still attached to my laptop or blackberry. In fact, I just copped a netbook a few weeks ago to alleviate the stress of travelling without my computer – the tribulations of being a geek.

The first bit of luck came when my blackberry didn’t work in Costa Rica. I even gave it a half-hearted effort to call T-Mobile to try and fix it but to no avail. Without me checking my phone, email, twiter, etc. every 20 seconds, I learned that stuff happening within my line of sight is kind of interesting also! I have this vicious habit of checking my phone the instant I wake up in the morning, even before I am fully conscious. It’s a crappy and stressful way to start a day. Sometimes I even fall back asleep after I check my email and then I’m not sure if my overdue cable bill is reality or a figment of my theta state. Anyway, I digress.

A limited functioning blackberry is actually a triple whammy as my BBM and twitter were also down, and without a pressing need to carry around my phone I also lost my source for tracking time. I assured my friends that I could determine time from looking at the sun and that would be correct within a margin of error of +/- 90 minutes. Some might say that is about the same margin of time in which I operate even with a clock.

Interestingly, all the places where we stayed (and some were quite remote) had wi-fi. This is one of the biggest tech advancements in traveling over the last few years (GPS being the other MAJOR improvement). I used to have to seek out a business center or internet café, but now the internet comes to me. This was actually quite comforting as I knew that I could go online whenever I needed too. I was pretty good about checking email only once per day and was also able to use the connection to Skype home every few days to let my parents know I was still alive.

Finally, between the four of us we had no functioning digital camera. We did buy an underwater disposable camera but couldn’t figure out if it worked and felt kind of lame carrying it around. I’m not a big picture taker or picture poser so not having to stop and freeze mid-peak added to the relaxation.

It took a few days to unwind but eventually I realized I was disconnected. It felt fresh. Without digital distractions, I was left to live the life that was unfolding in front of me or in my mind! When that consists of rafting, surfing, fishing, reading and amazing beaches…well, that’s a recipe for happiness.

Without killing time bouncing around esoteric blogs and analyzing Division II box scores on the web, I was even able to polish off a few excellent books including The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson, A Farewell to Arms and How Soccer Explains The World.

But even more interesting, was the sheer amount of focused thinking, reflection and introspection I was able to accomplish. An uncluttered mind leads to a new perspective that is often refreshingly clear. I realized that some things that were frustrating or nagging were causing an unnecessary amount of stress in my life. I thought about what I wanted to accomplish in the near future and the far future in much more simpler terms. It felt great.

I hope that all of my future vacations will allow me to digitally disconnect. I also want to figure out how I can do that in smaller pockets of time. It feels great and when I reconnect there is a lot less static.

I hope you had a great holiday season and a festive New Year. I wish you and your family a happy and healthy New Year in 2010. If you haven’t had a chance to do so, I highly recommend you take some time to get off the digital grid.

I’m not at the point where I feel comfortable enough to share my career ambitions and goals in this blog post. To be honest, I’m not sure if I’ll ever have the desire to do that. But I do have a few things on the process and how I’m trying to figure it all out.

When I get an idea or concept like this stuck in my head, I usually think and think and then think some more and try to chip away at the issue until I begin to make sense out of it. I’ve always been thankful that my mind works in such a way that the more I focus on something the better I’m able to process it and feel more comfortable. I’ll usually try to clear my head and then think my way out of pickles or stressful situations. The nice thing about being a rational and logical thinker is that it’s easier to trust myself. I’m my own shrink.

Still, sometimes I need a mental boost to get me over the humps. Besides my father (who admittedly is clueless when it comes to today’s digital world) I really don’t have a mentor to turn too. So i rely on good conversations, things I read or even by connecting with people through this blog. I’ve had a few of worthwhile moments recently that I want to mention to ya’ll.

Recently, I’ve been playing career adviser for both of my sisters as they try to figure out their next career moves. I kind of give them the no holds barred brotherly lectures where I recite everything I know all at once in a condescending, know-it-all tone. The analogies I come up with on the fly with Courtney are frighteningly bad as I try to explain the same concept to her in four different ways just to make sure she grasps it exactly how I intended. Discussing and understanding their challenges allows me to realize and reaffirm some of my fundamental principles. Sometimes, solving other people’s problems can be the best way to solve your own.

Last week, I had lunch (La Mazouski) with Mia’s husband who now scares me with his intelligence and understanding of the digital startup world even more than he scares me with his flamboyant exuberance (penis jibbitz!). Jer has a combination of abundant energy and extreme restlessness that can get your gears turning. I find myself still thinking about some of the things we discussed one week later.

Finally, I read a blog post by investor and tech entrepreneur Chris Dixon this week. His blog is all the rage these days as he’s certainly distinguishing himself as a influencer in the tech startup community. Dixon used a classic computer science problem to discuss career path. I sucked at the only computer science class I took in college (got a C+ in C++) but the analogy clicked for me immediately. In my moments of second-guessing, I sometimes have difficulty reconciling the career opportunities that I’ve passed up and wondering if I made those choices for the right reasons. If an 18 year old Brian Litvack looked at a 28 year old Brian Litvack he might even call him an underacheiver (he would definitely call him fat). Chris’s blog post helped me put this insecurity into a larger perspective. It also has helped me better think through the entire topic of my career.

You can read the full blog post, and the comments are also worth a read, but here’s my favorite part…

A classic problem in computer science is hill climbing. Imagine you are dropped at a random spot on a hilly terrain, where you can only see a few feet in each direction (assume it’s foggy or something). The goal is to get to the highest hill.

Consider the simplest algorithm. At any given moment, take a step in the direction that takes you higher. The risk with this method is if you happen to start near the lower hill, you’ll end up at the top of that lower hill, not the top of the tallest hill.

A more sophisticated version of this algorithm adds some randomness into your walk. You start out with lots of randomness and reduce the amount of randomness over time. This gives you a better chance of meandering near the bigger hill before you start your focused, non-random climb.
Another and generally better algorithm has you repeatedly drop yourself in random parts of the terrain, do simple hill climbing, and then after many such attempts step back and decide which of the hills were highest.

 

 

Going back to the job candidate, he has the benefit of having a less foggy view of his terrain. He knows (or at least believes) he wants to end up at the top of a different hill than he is presently climbing. He can see that higher hill from where he stands.

But the lure of the current hill is strong. There is a natural human tendency to make the next step an upward one. He ends up falling for a common trap highlighted by behavioral economists: people tend to systematically overvalue near term over long term rewards. This effect seems to be even stronger in more ambitious people. Their ambition seems to make it hard for them to forgo the nearby upward step.

People early in their career should learn from computer science: meander some in your walk (especially early on), randomly drop yourself into new parts of the terrain, and when you find the highest hill, don’t waste any more time on the current hill no matter how much better the next step up might appear.