If they can do it...

Meet the Celebrity Gardener

2009-10-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

How Japanese-born Asafumi Yamashita created a bustling backyard business growing vegetables for some of the top chefs in Paris

Asafumi Yamashita's exotic veggie business grosses about $150,000 a year.

read full story

Drive-By Truckers

2009-07-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

A cult rock-n-roll band that is changing the business model for music. They have no problem with letting people rip and distribute their music, for free. This band makes their living on tours and merchandise. And they are succeeding.

www.drivebytruckers.com

The Paper Airplane Guy

2009-07-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

This guy makes a living doing conventions and conferences, as an entertainer. Is this a great country or what!

The Paper Airplane Guy

Former Employees Discover Life After Wall Street

2009-05-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

Chen, 26, is a partner at a company called GreenSoul Shoes. He's scrupulously polite, though he stops to look at his BlackBerry every chance he gets. Chen grew up in the Bronx — a math wiz who went to Brown. He later landed a job at Bear Stearns. He loved the intense competition of the place, and he would have stayed, but then one weekend last year, Bear Stearns collapsed.

Adaptation

2009-05-19T06:13:00.000-07:00

Adaptation is the key to success in a quickly changing market place. In recent years more people have met the painful understanding that in business success is synonymous with survival. Dan Miller posted an encouraging story of a mom and pop tire shop that adapted to compete against the big tire chains on the market. They found a specialty which now provides the bulk of their revenue.

If they can make their business work so can you.

Re-tired and doing well

Can you change everything?

2009-05-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

Another piece by Seth Godin.

You might not be as permanently stuck in a rut as you think. The rut you're in isn't permanent, nor is it perfect. There are certainly less perfect ruts, but there may be better ones as well. The certain thing is that you can change everything...

Can you change everything?

Options Not Obligations

2009-04-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Fun Entrepreneurial Ideas for Children

Starting a small business with your children is a great way for kids to learn financial responsibility, life skills, and build confidence. As a parent, it is your duty to teach your kids the importance of these things and take pride in doing so.

The number one key to getting your kids interested in entrepreneurism and financial responsibility is to make it fun. Before you begin a business venture with your children, remember these important tips.

Options Not Obligations

Have a “Curious Child?”

2009-04-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

Dan Miller, author of "No More Mondays" and "48 Day To The Work You Love", has a very active blog. On April 27, 2009 Miller posted a message on the importance of encouraging one's children to live well, especially concerning their dreams for building their own lives.

William and Mary had three children, two girls named Kristi and Libby and a son they nicknamed Trey. Since William was a successful Seattle attorney and Mary was a school teacher they thought a career in law would be an appropriate pursuit for their only son as well.

Imagine their pleasure when Trey scored 1590 out of a possible 1600 on the SAT. His parents were thrilled when he was accepted into Harvard in 1973. But Trey had a hard time finding a clear focus for his studies and spent most of his time playing around on the schools computers.

According to Trey’s parents they were “sick when he told us he planned to leave college to take advantage of a window of opportunity he believed would be long gone by the time he graduated from Harvard.” Much to the dismay of his parents, he dropped out of school forever in 1975.

read the full post: Have a “Curious Child?”

Pivots for change

2009-03-12T11:31:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin has a great yet short blog post helping us keep perspective in this changing economy. Making some changes may be necessary, but don't let that freak you out. You need to acknowledge the reality of life that change happens. Don't delude yourself into thinking you can always do things the same way you've always done them.

When industry norms start to die, people panic. It's difficult to change when you think that you must change everything in order to succeed. Changing everything is too difficult.

Consider for a minute the pivot points available to you:

Keep the machines in your factory, but change what they make.

Keep your customers, but change what you sell to them.

read Pivots for change

A Brief History Of The “Entrepreneurial Revolution”

2009-03-04T09:47:00.000-08:00

Alex Mandossian has an excellent blog post on entrepreneurship. His idea is that the next wave of business mentality will open up opportunity and possibilities for any of us to succeed.

"Although I don’t agree with all of President Obama’s economic philosophies, I do agree with his recent declaration, “The future of our economy relies on the imagination of our Entrepreneurs.” Whether you agree or disagree, please share your thoughts with me and the rest of the world."

A Brief History Of The “Entrepreneurial Revolution”

The Adventure Lifestyle Company

2009-02-20T07:20:00.000-08:00

Jon Lovette founded a company designed to help people break up the desk job mentality and enable them to start their own business and enjoy the freedom life has to offer. It's an opportunity to build your own business and lead your own life. Check it out.

LEARN A SIMPLE BUSINESS. LIVE AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE!

Milton Friedman and Phil Donahue - 1979

2009-02-18T12:10:00.000-08:00

cap⋅i⋅tal⋅ism - noun
an economic system based on private ownership of capital

share - verb
To allow someone to use or enjoy something that one possesses

You have a right to make your own decisions, as long as you don't violate someone else's right to make their own decisions. You have a right to learn what you want to learn, think what you want to think, work in the industry you want or build a business of your choice. There are a lot of laws in place to protect us from harming each other, but in essence we are supposed to be able to live our own lives.

Too many people are afraid to go it alone, to build a business and be self-employed. It's hard, no doubt. It's risky, the burden of success is on your shoulders, you'll work an insane number of hours. You used to be able to keep the fruits of your own labor, but that's changing now.

The overwhelming push to help people during troubled economic times has morphed in to a compulsory effort to "share" everything "equally" in our country. Today the immense time and energy you've spent building a life on your own terms so you have the freedom to make your own decisions for yourself is labeled as "greed".

Don't let the myth of fairness destroy your dreams. Manufactured fairness is not fair and confiscating your reward for your own efforts under threat of imprisonment is not sharing.

The late, brilliant economist Milton Friedman made an appearance on the Phil Donahue show in 1979. In this interview Donahue got an education in common sense and the reality of life, but it didn't seem to penetrate. To succeed in this socialistic environment you need to understand the difference between economic self interest and greed, and to distinguish between compassion and self-righteous pandering.

watch the interview

Hamster Burial Kits & 998 Other Business Ideas

2009-02-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

Ideas are a dime a dozen. The money is in the execution.

Need proof? For Seth Godin's Alternative MBA program, this week the nine of us came up with 111 business ideas each. But ideas are only valuable when someone (like you) makes something happen.

What follows are our 999 business ideas, free for the taking.

see the list

An American dream story about the girl next door

2009-02-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

BROOMALL -- Pay attention. One day this story will be legend.

Jen Groover's purse annoyed her. With stuff laying on top of stuff, nothing could be seen. In a fit of pique, as they say, she yanked the dish rack out of her dishwasher and shoved it in her bag. There was all her stuff, standing in plain view, in neat little compartments.

Of such moments is entrepreneurial history made.

read her story

Scooper's business is picking up

2009-02-16T09:11:00.001-08:00

This is the story about a man in Virginia Beach who created a poop scooping business. He's not the only one in the country or even his own town doing this type of job. But he's making decent money. In fact, it makes such good money he plans to eventually do this work full time. If he can make a living doing this just imagine the possibilities out there for you, if you're willing to go out and grab them.

read the story here | Visit his official website

Rugged Individualism Speech, Herbert Hoover, 1928

2009-02-16T08:29:00.000-08:00

This speech was delivered in New York City by Republican presidential candidate Herbert Hoover on October 22, 1928, toward the close of the election campaign. In this classic example of American conservative philosophy, Hoover condemned the Democratic platform as a misguided attempt to solve the problems of prohibition, farm relief, and electrical power through state socialism; he extolled free, private enterprise and initiative, a system of "rugged individualism," as the foundations of America's "unparalleled greatness." Government entry into commercial business, he argued, would destroy political equality, increase corruption, stifle initiative, undermine the development of leadership, extinguish opportunity, and "dry up the spirit of liberty and progress."

read it here