Year: 2007

Common Sense Business (Steve Gottry)

Last night I finished reading Steve Gottry’s book Common Sense Business : Starting, Operating, and Growing Your Small Business–In Any Economy!
I guess the title says it all and pretty much explains what the book is about.

I went through this book pretty quickly, it’s an easy simple read, in which the author pulls from his business experience and the ups and downs he’s been through to share his experience with the reader and give advice on how to start, operate and grow a small business.

It covers the whole life cycle of a small business, how to build on your assets, how to face your natural enemies and well how to take an alternate route if you’re forced to.

I think it’s a really good read and practical guide based on real personal experience, it’s very useful for any person planning to launch a business or already running one.
I would have liked it to get into a bit more detail on the initial phases of business concept creation and the launch details, but well I’m just being greedy I guess.

If you’re interested, you can buy the book here: Common Sense Business (Steve Gottry).

Why Were We Created?

Why were we created?
That’s one big question; one that doesn’t necessarily have one exact answer, but well depending on who you ask, you’ll be getting a range of different answers.

For example,
A pious person would tell you that we were created to worship God.
A scientist would tell you that we were created to discover the amazing secrets of our world.
A philosopher would tell you that we were created to think.
An artist would tell you that we were created to simulate the perfections and imperfections of the world through art.
A philanthropist would tell you that we were created to help others.

And the list of answers continues, every person bringing his own ideas and beliefs to the table, further confirming that there is no universal answer or truth behind it, much like every other question we have in life.

Out of curiosity, why do you think we were created?

Nicolas Sarkozy Wins French Presidential Elections

So, yesterday was big presidential election day in France, and Nicolas Sarkozy won; he got 53% of the vote.

I was expecting this, and it came at no surprise to me; I haven’t followed the campaigns closely, because after all it is not a story that is of any special importance to me, but I caught some bits and pieces of debates or talk shows here and there, and Sarkozy is simply put a better salesperson and speaker than S

You Live, You Learn

You live, you learn
You love, you learn
You cry, you learn
You lose, you learn
You bleed, you learn
You scream, you learn
You grieve, you learn
You choke, you learn
You laugh, you learn
You choose, you learn
You pray, you learn
You ask, you learn
You live, you learn

These great words come from one of my favourite Alanis Morissette songs “You Learn“, and the big important keyword here is “learn”, because going through life without learning from our different experiences is basically nothing but a huge waste of time.

Everything that happens to us happens for a reason, and it’s up to us to learn that reason, learn the lessons behind it, and do what is needed to make our lives better and more like we want them to be.

The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell

A couple of days ago I finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point“, another business book about how the littlest of things can make a big difference.

The book explores the concept of “epidemics” and how ideas, products, messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do, and what it is that makes them tip over and become an epidemic; starting from the influential kinds of people who can spread the message, to the stickiness of the message itself and the context in which it came to exist.

It’s a very interesting read and provides a new way of thinking for how to handle promoting a product, idea or message; and how to eventually make it a success.

I already read Malcom Gladwell’s book “Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking“, even though this one came out first, and they both follow the same style, explaining the idea and giving a number of examples to illustrate it, which I really enjoyed and which makes the points even clearer.

I recommend this book to anyone in business or interested in business, it gives you a new line of thought that is very interesting and could help enormously in generating a buzz around your ideas and creating a hype around your products, which in the end should result in sales and success.

James Morrison – Undiscovered

One of the CDs I’ve been listening to a lot in the car recently is “Undiscovered” by English singer/songwriter James Morrison.

I came to know James Morrison through his song “You Give Me Something” which is a really cool song, and then after hearing another of his songs called “Wonderful World”, I just had to buy the album. I wasn’t let down, the whole album is a magnificent ride through a set of great tunes and lyrics.

James’ style reminds me a lot of James Blunt and KT Tunstall with evident influences by greats like Cat Stevens, Otis Redding and Van Morrison; it’s a mix of pop/rock and soul music, with a layer of simple yet powerful and touching lyrics on top.

I can’t say which songs are my favourites because I appreciate every song on this album and enjoy it greatly, but the ones I listen to the most I guess are still “You Give Me Something” and “Wonderful World”.

I really recommend this album for people into the pop/rock or soul genres, or who enjoyed music by the likes of James Blunt and KT Tunstall; you won’t be dissapointed, this album is a delight.

My score for this album would be 8.5/10.

You can buy this album here: James Morrison (Undiscovered).

Meetings: Types And Tips

It’s incredible how much companies love meetings. So much time is spent in meetings, you can’t but think that it’s sometimes a waste of time, and that is often true if these meetings are not productive enough and give no results.

Seth Godin identifies 6 different types of meetings:

– Just so everyone knows
– What are you up to
– What does everyone think?
– We need a decision right now.
– Hanging out meetings.
– To hear myself talk meetings.

He goes on into further detail on each type and gives some tips on how to make meetings more productive.

Ben Yoskovitz also suggests 7 ways to avoid pointless meetings:

– Make sure the meeting has a clear purpose.
– Avoid suspense.
– Document what

Bully for Playstation 2

Last weekend I bought “Bully“, a game for Playstation 2 that I had seen advertised a number of times and which I thought looked cool; I’ve been playing it ever since.
The game is by Rockstar Games (Take 2), the people behind the famous Grand Theft Auto games.

Bully opens with 15-year-old troublemaker Jimmy Hopkins, getting dumped off at Bullworth Academy, a boarding school full of trouble-makers, by his newly remarried mother and her rich husband.
It’s up to him (you, the player) to stand up to the bullies of the school, go to class, do different missions and along the way rise to the top of the school’s social scene.

The animation and gameplay are really good and quite similar to GTA, it’s the setting and storyline though that make this game special and truly fun to play.

Overall, this is a really fun game that I recommend for gamers who are into role-playing games like this.

My score for this game would be: 8/10.