Great post Alex! Really glad I got back to this in my G-reader feed.

I couldn't agree more with your premise or strategic & tactical implications.

I would contend the implications are the same for entrepreneur's raising non-institutional money, from either angel's or friends/family. The very first round of angel money I ever tried raising, wasted six months of my life in the pursuit of "bad money" from a potential investor who ultimately showed to be of increidbly low character. Really tough lesson, but in hindsight, if I had asked the simple question of myself, "Is this person someone I trust? Someone that meets my personal mission statement of 'doing great things with great people'?" I would have known the answer immediately.

Great post, and really encouraging to hear that in the eyes of at least those VC's, character is directly tied to ROI.

Great point, Alex! Thanks for the studies resource too...

Thanks so much Jenni!

Thanks so much for the comment, Buddy! One of the foundations of writing out these goals was to be realistic with myself as well as challenging. Digging into the word is a part of my faith that really needs to grow...and practically speaking, raising five girls doesn't leave too much time for reading of any sort. The other aspect of it, is the way I plan to read; mediatate, study...use some great commentaries in the tough parts. Make sense?

Good post, Alex. My heart hurt over the Joe Plumber saga....Amazing....hurts my faith in the American everyman that they would rather get a welfare check cleverly marketed as a "tax refund" than build a business, a job-creator and a legacy. (after all, how is it a refund if you're not paying any income taxes in the first place?).

Thanks so much Bradley! Please share your thoughts after you've re-read a few times!! :)

Thanks so much, Alex! Look forward to you continuing the conversation!

Thanks so much Matt! Apprecite it greatly!

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Awesome, Alex! Congrats to you and your team on the awesome, awesome traction!

Thanks Brad. Looking forward to the posts! As an aside, I'd be honored to write a guest-post about leadership in crisis times. I would draw on my experience running $350M+ in contracts in Iraq, as well as the lessons I learned (good & bad) from Colonels, Generals and Ambassadors that I supported there in 2004. Just thought about it as I've read some of these 3,127 posts :)