So in reminiscing about my days at Cisco, I've come up with a couple of things to remember for when I start my own company. As I discussed with Jeff, it's when you don't have it that you truly appreciate what you had. And in that sense, having free drinks at your disposal was something I can now truly appreciate. Imagine having 3 fridges of drinks similar to the ones you'd find at a local 7-11, one devoted to bottled waters, and the other devoted to sodas, juices, and other assorted drinks. Not only that, but there were several different blends of coffee, numerous choices of teas, and free popcorn. So, for those of you who are my future employees, you can look forward to having such luxuries. Similarly, I didn't really appreciate Fridays at Cisco as much as I can now. Having a couple of beers with coworkers on Fridays, in retrospect, rocked. At the time I thought it was just a cool "hey I don't have to do work right now if I have a beer with my boss and coworkers"-type deal. And that's still kind of what it is, but it's still cool to just have a beer at work. Now, at Sun, such luxuries are but figments of imaginations that harkens back to the days of the Silicon Valley boom. I'll tell coworkers that one thing I thought was cool at Cisco was the breakrooms, and they'll just say that it's a cool idea but can't comprehend and truly appreciate the breakroom's importance to company morale. Here at Sun, we get free coffee (usually yucky tasting) and an assortment of teas that lack in quality. I've been drinking hot cocoa, firstly because it's the only thing I like here, and secondly, that's pretty much as far as the selection goes. We get water but you have to poor it in a cup. And that leads to a rather indifferent feel to the company morale, in my opinion. I don't care how Sun does, but I thought Cisco was the best thing happening.



So, in all, when I start my own company, free drinks and assorted snacks, beer Fridays and other Cisco influences will be around. Or I'll just go back and work for them... if they were to hire me.