In the past week, since returning from SXSW, I've seen more than a handful of examples of New York City tech and digital personalities opening calling out others in our community in the oh so context-less 140 characters of Twitter. From hate mail for big companies like Foursquare or young companies like Bib+Tuck (who I am an advisor to), the call outs haven't been constructive for the companies or their founders and make the VCs, PR professionals, and Media types spouting the digital venom look like playground bullies. Are there conversations to be had about elevating our game? Can we hold the standard high in our community of chip-on-the-shoulder Silicon Alley start-ups? Can we expect more from our fellow entrepreneurs and partners? Yes to all of the above. But, in such a small, by comparison, community of people working in the technology and digital realm, no one is more than one email introduction away.

Success in the NYC digital scene is not a zero sum game that only one company gets to take home the prize. Investments are being made, companies and jobs are being created, and we have a huge cheerleader in the Mayor's office. The fledgling community is at a turning point that has all kinds of potential just around the next bend, but only if as a community we raise the bar in a constructive and actionable way. There are more than enough wins to go around, let's go get them together.

"A rising tide carries all ships." - Warren Buffett

I have been a Simon Sinek fan for awhile, every since his TED Talk (which I blogged about HERE.) And today during lunch, like I do everyday that I don't have a lunch meeting, I had a Learning Lunch. I usually go to the TED Talks channel, but this time, YouTube suggested another Simon Sinek talk first. If you only have three minutes, watch the first three minutes when he discuses his purpose in life. But if you want to hear leadership explained in a way that will be immediately implementable in your life, take the 21 minutes to watch the whole thing.

This week on Forbes I only shared part of the story about increasing time in 2013. I made the bold claim that, if you found one hour each day to be more productive than you were the year before, you could add 365 hours of time to your year. Or said another way, 15.2 days of better living in 2013. (Read it HERE) Awesome thought right? Who wouldn't love an extra two weeks to get things done in the new year?

The idea hit me while recovering from jet lag after our Thanksgiving trip to Europe. I was going to be at my usual time (midnight) but waking up an hour earlier than normal (4:45ish) and functioning just fine each day on less sleep than I usually run on. So one morning around 5:15 as I started my 2nd cup of coffee, the thought struck me, what if I slept one hour less everyday for a year? That question led to the math that lead to the Forbes post this week. If I slept one hour less every day in the new year, I would be AWAKE for an additional 15.2 days worth of the year.

So, like I frequently do when I have an epiphany over my early morning coffee before anyone else is awake, I sent myself an email reminder to run the idea past some friends later in the day. When I did, I was met with two reactions:

1) You are freak who doesn't need sleep, stop judging me. In fact, you are unhealthy for sleeping as little as you do now.

2) That's cool, but what on earth would I do with all that extra time?

The first reaction was some what in jest, but it was definitely interesting to see how long people sleep being such a hot button issue that my suggestion of GAINING TWO WEEKS OF AWAKE TIME IN THE NEW YEAR set off their defenses.

But the second reaction was actually more concerning to me. Some of the very same people who I've heard complain recently of not being as far along on projects or goals as they'd hoped were viewing the sacrifice of sleep as a price too high to pay. Or that whatever they might be able to accomplish in that extra hour wouldn't be as valuable as an extra hour between the sheets.

This is not a post recommending you sleep 5-6 hours like I do, I know that isn't for everyone. But I am of the mind to say that it is amazing what you body can do when it is trained to. It is even more amazing to see what your mind can do when it is trained to consider every waking or sleeping hour as part of a much bigger plan.  My goals and ambitions stress me out everyday. The "what" and "why" are bigger than what I can see as far as the "how" are concerned. Most nights when I go to bed I am already thinking about what I am going to be working on when I get up the next morning.

Again, this rant isn't to say that my sleep patterns are to be modeled or are right for anyone other than me. But it is to say that, I hope in the new year, every hour of your day, waking or sleeping, will be considered as far game towards getting you to your goals and the ambitions that you have for the new year and that those goals and ambitions will be big enough that all habits and patterns are open for discussion and modification to optimize your life in the new year.

In college, I became better friends with my fellow classmates if we all disliked the professor. We bonded together to make sure we passed tests and got notes because we knew we'd receive no help from the front of the classroom. The negative environment created an engaged community. And Waze has done the same thing for driving and traffic. I am extremely excited to announce I have joined Waze as Senior Director of Business Development. Through partnerships with brands, broadcasters, and local governments, Waze is doing more than getting you from point A to point B. Active users drives 440 minutes per month with Waze as their copilot, a solid 7+ hours each month that Waze can make better. Whether showing the lowest price gas or building in a coffee break pit stop along the way, there is a lot of surprising and delighting to be done.

With over 33,000,000 drivers around the world, Waze is a free navigation and traffic app that is home to the world's largest community of drivers who work together to outsmart traffic, together. The maps on Waze are updated in real time by other drivers (voice activated commands) to let the community know about traffic jams, accidents, and police speed traps. Pulling together all of these incidents and data points, Waze automatically updates your driving directions and saves you time on your journey or daily commute. (You can join the for free community HERE)

It seems like everyone is talking about maps these days thanks to Apple rolling out their less than awesome product in September. While Google finally released their Maps product for iPhone a couple of weeks ago, there is still a lot of people looking for more than just how to get from point A to point B. Here are a couple other fun things folks are using Waze for:

So check it out, would love to hear your thoughts on what kind of brands and partnerships would make your drive time even better.

Some advice transcends trends. Check out this talk by Kevin Rose a few years back (Twitter was new) where he lays out some of the hacks that he and his teams used to grow their companies. Definitely worth the 22 minutes. (HERE is the text version as well)

Always looking for great resources like this for the companies I advise.

Know of another good batch of advice, let me know.