Happy 2011! We hope everyone had a great 2010, and if you didn’t, that 2011 brings great things your way.

As for us, 2010 was filled with new adventures.

• We co-produced Digital Capital Week in June – a ten day festival with over 6,000 participants from around the world.
• On Thankfulfor.com, we rolled out a number of updates such as posting images, profiles, following, more email notifications and more.
• We embarked on a project with Jen’s family in Maine and launched Shiny Maine Lobster, bringing fresh Maine lobster to people across the US.
• We launched the Thankfulfor iPhone application in November and are preparing for the Android app too.
• We worked with Crowdflower and JESS3 to produce the 2010 Gratitude Index, which was highlighted on media sites across the web, including CNNMoney.com, CBSNews.com, Techcocktail.com, Mashable.com, HuffingtonPost.com and others.
• Since Thankfulfor is a free site without ads, we were very thankful for all of our gracious community members who helped support the site via their contributions.

Outside of Shiny Heart Ventures, co-founder Frank Gruber successfully grew his media company Tech Cocktail, and brought co-founder Jen Consalvo onboard. So now the team has two ventures. Tech Cocktail produced over 20 events around the country in 2010 including the Startup Mixology conference in Chicago, and grew the online news site tremendously  - a huge accomplishment. At the same time, Jen launched her photography ebook, Love Your Photos: A Simple Guide To Photographic Happiness. Another great personal achievement.

As for 2011, we will continue to grow the Thankfulfor community, introducing new features to our thousands of members that will enrich and grow the community. Another important project will be Digital Capital Week 2011 – this year produced by Tech Cocktail and iStrategy Labs.

Via our many ventures, we look to build communities, increase joy in people’s lives and contribute to society while also building responsible and successful businesses. We hope you’ll join us. What are your plans for 2011? Tell us in the comments below.

This morning I saw @stevecase tweet out that today was the last day to watch the full length version of The Entrepreneur on SnagFilms. So I multi-tasked… Skyping with developers in India, checking email, writing and watching the film. It’s a 91 minute film, produced by Morgan Spurlock and directed by Jonathan Bricklin, son of Malcolm Bricklin (the subject of the film). This world premier was part of SnagFilms one-year anniversary “SummerFest” celebration (congrats Ted and team!). Partnering with Hulu, they provide world premieres of a new film each Friday for four weeks. Each film — streaming on demand from Hulu — is available exclusively online for one week, before appearing at festivals, theaters, classrooms and at-home DVD players. Pretty exciting for film buffs – and for Snagfilms!

But back to the film… What a story of human spirit, adventure and persistence. From the very end of the film, here’s my favorite quote:

In 70 years, Malcolm Bricklin married 4 women, and started over 30 different businesses – and less than half were successful. That’s if your criteria for success is based on positive financial returns. For Malcolm, it seems to be based on the experience itself. If I had to guess how many more businesses or wives he may have, I would say, as many as he can.

If you are an entrepreneur or have ever been interested in what drives people to continue on in the face of adversity, watch this film. It took Bricklin 5 years and over 1500 hours of footage to create this stellar combination of humor, determination, success, defeat and spirit. It’s honesty is startling.  Through it all, Malcolm’s life is a reminder that it’s about the experiences and the journey – not the money or success or failure. It’s about setting your eye on a target and going after it – working hard but having a great time doing it. And in fact, demonstrating that when you’re doing something you’re passionate about, working your ass off is FUN! Hope you get a chance to check it out.

Are you like George? photo by Thomas Hawk

“My curiosity is perhaps the character trait of which I am most proud. The most successful people I have known along my journey to this richer and fuller life share this one critical character trait – boundless, near insatiable curiosity”  – W. Randall Jones, The Richest Man in Town

“Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.”  – Samuel Johnson

In describing myself, I’m not sure I would have ever chosen that word, but as I ponder it now, I think curiosity is what underlies all my interests – from global exploration (we are in Taipei as I type) to documenting the most mundane of things around me and of course, the big questions – why am I here, what is the purpose of life and can I start and run a business?  Thankfully my partner in this venture, Frank, is like Curious George himself – his hungry eyes constantly seeking out anything that might be the slightest bit mysterious or unknown whether it’s the mysteries of the deep sea, black holes in outer space, a bunch of PHP and Drupal code, how Intel chips are made or trying to figure out what constitutes the best waffle ever.

I suspect that many entrepreneurs are curious people, and that most visionaries must be driven by that same underlying force that Da Vinci was so famous for.  So now I’m wondering… has curiousity driven you to do anything extraordinary in your life?  Has curiousity led you to try new activities, bizarre foods, uncommon paths?  Or do you push yourself just because you are curious about your own limits? Let us know! Other people’s stories about what drives them are fascinating and often inspiring – please share yours.