Have a “Curious Child?”

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

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”

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

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

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

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

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