Thoughts

며칠전에 확보한 .com 도메인에 내 이메일이 소유자로 등록되어있어서 그런지
외국의 웹디자인 업체들이 광고메일을 계속 보내온다.

한번도 그런 적 없었는데…

이건 단순한 도메인이라서
나름 그들의 영업 레이더 안에 드는 도메인이긴 했나보다.

경복궁 옆에 있는 국립현대미술관 서울관에 다녀왔다.
완공한지 3년되었다 하는데 건물안에 들어만 가보고 전시는 이번이 처음이다.

아내가 추천한
“아주 공적인 아주 사적인 : 1989년 이후, 한국현대미술과 사진”
이라는 전시를 보기 위해서였다.

국군기무사령부가 과천으로 이사가면서 국립현대미술관을 만든 것은
누구의 생각이었는지 모르겠지만 정말 잘한 결정이라 생각된다.

건물도 (국가가 지은 것 치고는) 국가의 간섭을 덜 받고 잘 지은 것 같다.
군데군데 뉴욕 MoMA의 느낌이 나긴 했다.

사진 전시회는 정말 마음에 들었는데
다만, MoMA처럼 작품집을 따로 팔면 좋았을텐데 그런 것이 전혀 없이 휑했던 것이 아쉬웠다.
미술관 직원들도 공무원이라 거기까지는 생각이 미치지 못했던 것인가…

사진은 미술관 간 길에 찍은 것.
원래 찍고싶은 컷이 있었는데 공사중이라 포기했다.

현재로서는 그리고 앞으로도 당분간 (아마도 계속해서) 아이를 가질 계획은 없다.

하지만 만약 아이가 생긴다면

그 아이에겐
좋은 것을 입히고 먹이고 하기 보다는

이 세상은 정말 크고 할 일도 많으며
나와 다른 남의 존재를 인정하고 존중하며
나보다 부족하고 도움이 필요한 사람들을 돕고 살아야하고
다른 사람의 시선에 구애받지말고 (아버지인 나도 그러지 않을 것임)
직업의 귀천 없이 본인이 스스로 만족스럽고 행복하다 생각하는 일을 하고 살라는

아주 간단한 세상의 이치를 꼭 가르치고 싶다.

예전에 본 기사인데
일기장에 옮겨놓지않았어서 다시 찾아냈다.

2000년 이후 110개 회사에 투자했지만 한번도 손실이 없었던 Vista라는 사모펀드 이야기다.

A Private Equity Titan With a Narrow Focus and Broad Aims

One of the best-performing private equity firms of the last 15 years doesn’t have a big name like K.K.R., Blackstone or TPG.

But Vista Equity Partners, a firm with $8 billion under management that deals exclusively in the unglamorous business of enterprise software, has managed to beat the titans of private equity at their own game.

Much of Vista’s success can be traced to the unconventional tactics of its hands-on chief executive, Robert F. Smith, who has delivered investors a staggering 31 percent average annual rate of return since co-founding Vista in 2000.

Preqin, a consulting firm that tracks the industry, reports that Vista’s third fund returned $2.46 for every dollar invested, better than every other big fund raised between 2006 and 2010, the boom years for private equity.

The firm has acquired more than 110 companies and never lost money on an investment, according to people familiar with its performance.

Demand to invest in Vista’s newest fund is so strong that Mr. Smith may raise $5 billion instead of the intended $3.5 billion. Yet despite Vista’s impeccable track record, Mr. Smith, one of the few black private equity titans, says he has faced an uphill battle to get some investors on board. At times, he has felt the unspoken pressure to work twice as hard to get half the respect of his peers, especially in the clubby world of private equity. The issue, he believes after decades in finance, is his race.

“I still see it when I raise funds,” he said in his first extended interview since Vista was launched. “I know that’s the reason certain limited partners don’t back us.”

Mr. Smith’s rise — from newly desegregated Colorado classrooms to the top of private equity rankings — is a little-known Wall Street success story, shaped by epochal changes in civil rights, technology and finance. And his success, in spite of long odds, has inspired him to take a counterintuitive approach to managing investments and hiring.

Instead of stripping out costs from the companies it acquires, Vista usually adds sales and engineering talent. And instead of searching for candidates with Ivy League degrees and prestigious internships, Vista looks for workers who have leadership potential and innate analytical abilities.

Using a personality test first developed by IBM that gauges technical and social skills, as well as a candidate’s interest in the arts and humanities, Vista assembles a decidedly unusual work force. Last year, the firm used the test to pare down more than 125,000 job applicants and offered just 6,000 jobs, often to unlikely candidates.

One of Vista’s best software salesmen used to be a roofer. Another previously worked at a Verizon store, and went to making $240,000 a year, from $22,000. In Iowa, a pizza deliveryman took the Vista aptitude test, got an A, and was offered a job paying $43,000 annually.

Not only are many of these workers less expensive than their better-credentialed peers, but to Mr. Smith, they are often more driven to succeed. And employing them, he believes, provides a social good.

“We find those kind of people and put them to highly productive use for decades,” Mr. Smith said.

Vista says turnover at its companies is the lowest in the software business. After Vista acquires companies, Mr. Smith says, they release more reliable software more frequently, customer satisfaction rises and profitability improves. And most Vista companies have 25 percent to 60 percent margins, he adds.

And while many buyout shops strive for diverse portfolios, owning everything from energy companies to theme parks, Vista is content to specialize in software, and focus on a diverse work force. Black, Hispanic and Asian men and women occupy leadership roles across the firm and its portfolio companies.

It is all part of Mr. Smith’s push to repair the damaged reputation of his industry.

“Everyone thinks that private equity is very transactional: Buy a company, do some financial engineering, and sell it,” he said. “We’re looking to transform the culture of that company, transform the way they think about themselves and the industry they serve.”

What Vista is doing is also very profitable.

“Right now our returns are better than Warren Buffett’s,” said Mr. Smith, 51, without going into specifics because Vista was in the process of raising money for its next fund.

But when many people meet Mr. Smith for the first time, they find not a brash money manager, but an effusive intellectual with a passion for engineering.

Bill Haack, founder of Zywave, first encountered Mr. Smith in 2008. Vista wanted to buy his firm, which provided insurance software. They met over dinner in San Francisco. Instead of discussing revenue projections, however, Mr. Smith wanted to talk science.

“He started talking about quantum mechanics,” Mr. Haack remembered. “And everything he said made sense.”

Mr. Smith, who favors three-piece suits and exudes a Clintonian charm, quickly won over Mr. Haack, who agreed to sell his company the next day.

Mr. Smith discovered his passion for enterprise software when he joined Goldman Sachs’s technology team in San Francisco in 1996. He advised Apple on its decision to bring back its co-founder, Steven P. Jobs, as chief executive; helped orchestrate Hewlett-Packard’s spinoff of Agilent; and worked with clients including Microsoft, Yahoo and eBay.

But instead of being seduced by hardware makers and consumer Internet companies, Mr. Smith grew intrigued with enterprise software companies like Oracle. And after years of counseling executives, Mr. Smith longed to strike out on his own.

“Robert wanted to be making those decisions, not advising people,” said Gene Sykes, Goldman’s co-head of global mergers and acquisitions, and an early mentor. In 1999, Mr. Smith left Goldman to help found Vista.

It was not his first leap of faith. Growing up in a mostly black, middle-class neighborhood in Denver, he was ambitious from an early age. Some of his pluck came from his parents, both of whom had Ph.D.s in education; some came from being one of two African-Americans in his recently integrated school.

When he was an infant, his mother carried him at the March on Washington, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. Seven years later, his uncle was slain in a racially motivated killing.

In high school, he applied for an internship at Bell Labs but was told the program was intended for college students. Mr. Smith persisted, calling every day. When a student from M.I.T. did not show up, he got the position, and that summer he developed a reliability test for semiconductors.

Mr. Smith studied chemical engineering at Cornell, then took a job at Kraft General Foods, where he earned two patents. Not satisfied with climbing the corporate ladder, he went to Columbia for a business degree.

Despite an initial distaste for investment bankers, he was persuaded to join Goldman Sachs, drawn to high-stakes mergers and acquisitions. Before long, he was in Silicon Valley, discovering enterprise software. Today, Vista companies sell software that makes oil wells more efficient, nuclear power plants more reliable and blood tests more accurate.

Wealth allows Mr. Smith to support an unusual cross section of philanthropic causes.

During his youth his family vacationed at Lincoln Hills, a 300-acre retreat outside Denver frequented by black jazz musicians like Duke Ellington. Decades later Mr. Smith returned on a fly-fishing trip and found it in disrepair.

He bought the property, restored it and now uses it to host both underprivileged schoolchildren, and entertainers like Maceo Parker, Angie Stone and Jamie Foxx. Mr. Smith and Mr. Foxx are friends and spend vacations together riding horses, skeet shooting and fly-fishing.

In Austin, Tex., where he lives, and Chicago, where Vista has an office, he has founded programs to support music education and minority entrepreneurship. One such initiative is sponsorship of competitions to discover talented young violinists.

Despite his egalitarian streak, Mr. Smith is also every bit a private equity chieftain. He opposes increasing taxes on carried interest — the profits from private equity investments — and he believes the best way to lift up the poor is to create jobs.

Yet, despite being in the company of some of Wall Street’s most successful entrepreneurs, Mr. Smith feels he has few obvious peers.

“The biggest challenge I’ve faced is a degree of loneliness,” he said. “Who is out there like me that I know?”

2달전에 사진 강의 신청하고 환불요청했더니,
상대가 돈을 적게 환불한뒤 나를 조롱하던 것에 격분하여
소액청구소송을 진행한 이후에

난생 두번째로
아파트 관리사무소와 입주자대표회의를 상대로
민사소송을 진행하게 되었다.

아파트 1층 주민들이 자유로이 쓰는 게시판에 글을 적었더니
임의철거하고나서는 위법행위하지말라는 공문을 받고 나서다.
이후에 한두차례 서로 공문을 주고 받았지만 상대의 태도는 변화가 없어서
결국 법의 판단을 받을 생각이다.

지난번 소액청구소송은 사실관계가 간단하여
내가 직접 소장을 적었는데

이번은 꼭 이겨야하는 소송이기에
대형 로펌 파트너 출신의 변호사님께 소장의뢰를 (50만원이나 들었다) 하여
논리를 탄탄히하고 보강하여 소장을 제출했다.
(확실히 변호사님이 소장을 적으니 내가 보아도 훨씬 나아보인다. 역시 전문가…)

민사의 경우 지법에서는 소액청구, 단독 (판사 1명), 합의(판사 3명)으로 나뉘는데
나는 민사합의로 결정되었다. 사안이 판사 1명이 심의하기엔 까다로웠나보다.

꼭 이겨서 내 권리를 찾을 것이다.

다른 사람과 대립하는 것이 마음은 당연히 편치 않고 가급적 피하고 싶었지만,
내 권리가 계속 침해받는 것보다는 이것이 낫다는 생각에는 변함이 없다.

도메인 등록을 마쳤다.
제일 원했던 도메인은 아니고 3순위 정도 되는데
그래도 co.kr과 com이 모두 있었다.

.com의 경우 2003년에 처음 만들어져 주인이 바뀌어오다가 2015년 가을에 끊긴 것을 잡았고
.co.kr도 기존에 있었는데 끊긴 것을 확보했다.

이 도메인을 실제로 쓰는 날이 오길…

몇시간째 기억을 더듬어봐도 도저히 생각이 안나서 끙끙 매고 있다.

어제 분명히 좋은 글귀를 보았는데 저장하지를 않고 머릿속에 스쳐 지나가기만 했다.

다른 context로 적혀진 3줄의 문장에서
난 각 줄의 단어 하나씩에서 의미를 찾은 것인데,
마지막을 제외하고 앞의 2개가 기억이 도저히 안난다.
(마지막이 제일 중요하다)

앞의 2개를 억지로 만들어보면

1. 포기하는
2. 따라가는 (순응하는)
3. 만드는

즉, 체념/포기할 수 있고, 남들 하는 것(유행) 따라갈 수 있고, 새롭게 만들어/창조해가는 방법이 있다는 것인데
(원문은 그런 내용은 아니었고 나는 저 형용사만 보았다)

나는 포기하지도 않을 것이고
순응하지도 않을 것이고

만들어나갈 생각이다.

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=103&oid=055&aid=0000420737

“더 좋아하는 일을 찾아서 간 것이다.”

p.s.
나는 회사를 차리더라도 언론 인터뷰는 가급적 하고 싶지 않고 (그럴 일도 없겠지만)
한다해도 연봉이 어떤 직장을 다녔다는 둥, 학교를 어디 나왔다는 둥 이런 이야기는 나 스스로 절대 할 생각도 없고, 기사에도 못넣게 할 생각이다.

근래 본 사람중에서 가장 부러웠던 사람

Garðar Ólafsson
이라는 이름의, 아이슬란드에서 살고있는 사진가다.

사진은 솔직히 아이슬란드에 사는 사람 치고는 대단하다 말할 것이 별로 없었지만
그 곳에 사는 그가 너무나 부러웠다.

https://500px.com/gardarolafs

사회생활을 시작하면서

사람들이 마치 나무의 가지처럼 한 기둥(학교)에서 다양한 굵기와 방향과 모양으로 가지를 내어 뻗어나는 모습을 본다.

그런데 그 사람이 원래 가지고 있는 본질(펀더멘털)과 그 가지의 모양은 일치하지 않더라.
그 사람의 펀더멘털(내공이라고도 부르는)과 괴리를 이루는 경우가 오히려 흔하다.

그런 차이를 만든 것이
가족, 친구, 선후배, 운, 요행에 의한 것일 수도 있고
자신의 능력 아닌 능력(펀더멘털을 감추고 스스로를 돋보이게 마케팅하는)일 수도 있다.

무엇이 되었든
그것을 비판하기보다 그냥 받아들이는 것으로 정리하는 것이 마음이 편하다.

저렇게 후진 인간도 저렇게 잘되는데
나는 뭐야

라는 생각을 하는 것은 의미없고 덧없다.
비교는 무의미하다.

나만 잘하면 된다.
그리고 나만 행복하면 된다.