Year in review: things I learned

Its almost the end of 2008, and everyone and their brother is doing a "year in review" list. As I am a sheep (baaaa!), here is my list of the things that I learned this year:

• Starting a company is hard (had to go with the obvious one first)
• Starting a company without millions of dollars to fund it is really hard
• Starting a company without millions of dollars to fund it in a recession is really, really hard
• Blogging can be therapeutic (for me, at least!)
• Virtual worlds are still very much in their infancy and companies won't be doing widespread adoptions until the technology is more interoperable with existing technologies 
• Technology companies driving the sales of virtual worlds for enterprise is a recipe for disaster for the industry
• Other smart people are out there trying to figure out how to leverage new technologies for learning
• I learned about a lot of these smart people through some of these technologies (thank you Twitter!)
• Avatars really can create a link to physiological and emotional responses in a 3D environment
• You can develop friendships with people who "live" in your computer, but real life friendships and relationships are still so much better, and shouldn't be neglected
• Being a Pollyanna is sometimes necessary, and sometimes harmful
• Traveling a lot makes you forget who you are a little
• There's a big difference between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, and sometimes who is and who isn't surprises you
• Its important to have a good lawyer (sharkweasel) and a good accountant
• Its important to have a good mentor
• Its important to have a good friend who you don't work with
• It helps to be friends with the people you work with
• Patience is more than a virtue, its a necessity
• Everyone should be so lucky to love what they do

All in all, there were lots of things I learned this year--about running a business, about the industry I'm in, about myself. I'm looking forward to continuing my education in 2009.