STARTUPS-"following your passion. If you have a great idea "

One of my secret passions in recent years has been learning about startups – how they run, what they need, how they reach their audience, the value-prop they offer and so on. Some people have a thing for GTD but I have a crush on startups. Why do I love them so? Take for example Markus Frind, the founder of the dating site Plenty of Fish. He is the sole employee of the company and single-handedly created one of the most trafficked sites in its league, pulling in over 10 million pageviews and $300,000 per month. That’s nothing short of incredible.

Other than reading about amazing startup stories, I enjoy finding out about running a startup and how other startups orchestrate themselves. Paul Graham’s essays are a great place to start if you’re in the same boat, as well as his Hacker News (née Startup News) website.
Aside from being a passion, startups for me are an unavoidable part of the tech scene. Some of the most innovative products come from some folks living in the same tiny apartment churning out code. I figure I better pickup on startups now and hone my currently lacking business running experience with Skribit. I don’t know what the future holds but I think I would rather work for a startup where I can make a large impact on the entire company compared to working for a massive Internet company and have little say in product development much less direction. I would rather be on a team of 3 that changed X or reinvented the way people use Y, or maybe even made Z obsolete than hidden away under the corporate umbrella of some Internet giant.

Reasons people avoid the startup life

There are many startup skeptics out there that would never consider starting their own company or working for an already established startup. The obvious reasons deal with the relative lack of job security. Your idea could end up not having the prospective market you once envisioned. Another reason/excuse people avoid working for startups – Google or another innovative startup is probably already doing what you’re doing. That reason doesn’t hold but I’ll leave that for later.
Bootstrapping is a b!tch. Starting a company needs capital. You’re going to need money to buy ramen while you grow your idea, and so are your co-founders. I’m not saying you need to immediately look for funding, in fact I’m saying quite the opposite and side with Fried et al (at least you don’t really need funding initially).
Opportunity cost will bite you. You might lose sleep when thinking about how you could have been making bank at a large, established company instead of working for a startup that doesn’t make any profit for a year.

Reasons why I disagree with those people

Startups are all about risk and rewards. You can take the blue pill and stay in a stagnant corporate job with a bit of career advancement headroom. Or you can take the red pill where your contributions are markedly more visible and you have more control over the direction of an entire startup. Risk also includes competition. Competition will always be present so there’s no reason to avoid the startup life just because of that. Competition is great for product development. It gives you a way of seeing what the market wants based on the competitor’s offerings and their success and thus enhancing your product.
Likewise, opportunity cost affects every decision you make. What would have happened if I went to a different college? If I had been a PC user all my life? If I never started a blog? In terms of startups, thinking about opportunity cost is hard to avoid but it usually comes down to your passion to change something and taking a risk to reap the rewards. When/if I start working for startup full-time, I know I’ll have to face dealing with a paltry income initially while my recent graduate friends take up $100k+ jobs at law firms and consulting agencies. My response to them is usually something along the lines of at least I enjoy what I do.

Should you do a startup?

I’ve thrown around the word passion quite a bit in this article. To me, startups are all about following your passion. If you have a great idea and really think it could work, why not give it a shot regardless of the risks? You’ll end up meeting many influential people from trying to push your product out there as well as seeking investment.

You’ll need..

For those of you that have only recently started reading this website, one of my “extracurriculars” is the web startup Skribit. It’s a service that lets bloggers cure writer’s block by opening a conversation with their readers by allowing readers to provide article suggestions, among other things I’ll leave for a separate article (we have some features coming soon). Skribit is by no means just my startup. There are a lot of people involved with Skribit (Calvin, Jason, Lance, Alan, Rob, Mike and quite a few more).
The hardest thing, even harder than the business plan, is hiring – finding people that will make a great addition to your startup that are in it for the same reasons. If you’re in it for the passion and have dreams of building a great community around your product, you probably won’t get along with someone that’s only in it for the money. People purely in it for the money will only develop ways to milk the cow but they won’t always work since they were not built with the market and end-user in mind. However, some compromise is unavoidably necessary as you need to have product direction and make money in the process.. just make sure you have enough passion people to keep the suits in check.
What about direction? It’s easier to run a company if you know where you want to take it. This includes laying out a product plan early on – potential avenues to explore as you iterate through product development and see what works and what doesn’t. As the product makes its first steps into the spotlight, you’ll realize which features are safe to explore based on how people use your product and the feedback you receive. Keep the direction of your startup easily accessible to all employees/co-founders so they stay on the same page.
I’m going to close with an idea on making new things – something you might consider taking to heart with your next venture:

I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly.

Startups: yes or no?
Disclaimer: You realize I’m only 24 right? Think twice before taking business advice from me.

KILLER !DEA TURNED TO REALITY

Coming up with a killer idea is no easy feat. I’m talking about that perfect idea that makes you consider dropping out of school or quitting your job to pursue it; something that could have a huge impact on a group of people, if not the world. In this article, I will attempt to present a method that might help you come up with and cultivate a powerful idea.

Brainstorming

There’s no question about this, most of your time will be spent brainstorming for ideas. Brainstorming for random ideas is rather ineffective, so you will at least want to come up with the type of idea you want to create. Will it be a product, service or methodology for doing something better than it is currently done? Will it have a website and be 100% Internet based? What kind of resources are you willing to expend to see that this idea is fully realized? Once you have a basic foundation, you can start brainstorming productively, rather than spewing out unprocessed ideas.

Let’s say you want to create a useful web application providing a unique service for users. Looking around the web and tech blogosphere, you can analyze trends, see what is overdone, what hasn’t been done and if there is a gaping void that needs to be filled. Typically, a successful idea revolves around something people actually have a need for, can save them time, help them communicate with others, organize their life, educates them, etcetera. Not all successful ideas have to be original though. Can you do something better than company XYZ does? Go right ahead.

So you’ve looked around and found out that social media is hot right now, albeit teetering towards being trite. Now you can narrow down your brainstorming process with that in mind. Regardless of what idea framework you have, maturing it will help you with the brainstorming process. Enough of the speculation for now, there are a few steps I like to take when brainstorming:

• Repetition: Make your own brainstorming routine – set aside an hour or two every week, every day or whatever fits into your schedule.
• Find a Buddy: Brainstorming on your own is only so effective. Without someone to add another perspective to every idea, you might not know when you’ve struck gold. Bouncing and exchanging ideas with a trustworthy friend can rapidly progress your brainstorming process.
  During the week, my roommate and I devote about an hour each night to coming up with ideas. We try to make this brainstorming session our break from battling homework and other tasks that deprive of us our full creative potential. Add some ice cream into the mix, a few jokes about how there are 4 huge truck tires in our dining room and you’ve got a potent think tank.
• Catalog Everything: Before you come up with a “workable” idea, you will find yourself with many ideas you have passed up on the way. Regardless of what you think of these ideas, jot them down. Anything from a yellow legal pad to a Moleskine will do – just have your ideas archived. They might come in handy later.

Eureka!

Weeks of brainstorming have left you with a worthy idea. Now what? Build it out and mature this idea as much as possible. Write down an outline for this idea. How it will work, what the features are, how it can expand if it gets popular and the like.

What is the target audience? How often will people use the service/product? Assuming it’s a web service of sorts, will people create an account, do some stuff and only visit once a week or will they login daily? Is the service/product easy to explain to a random person? How about a tech-savvy person, will they immediately understand it? What’s your business model? Will total revenue exceed total cost and expenditures? What about implicit costs; will you be better off building this idea rather than continuing your previous line of work? Do you plan to seek venture capital?

There are many questions to answer once you have established your idea, but before you begin to tackle them spend a few hours with your favorite search engine to see if it has already been done. If it already exists and there are no patents and other legalities preventing you from creating your idea, how will yours be better?

Find a Name

The next step is to pair your great idea with a great name. You might as well throw your idea away if you can’t produce a good name. Just as important is finding a worthy domain name. You might even go so far as naming your idea based on available domain names. I won’t delve on this too much as it is highly subjective but everyone loves a short and easy to remember domain/company name. You get bonus points if your domain/company name is not merely a jumble of letters as the current trend of Web 2.0 companies seem to be.

Wrap Up

I’m probably leaving out many things you should consider before manufacturing your idea – things like protecting the idea, forming a company, finding people capable of turning your idea into reality, scaling for your first thousand users all the way to your first million, and branding. In my opinion, the most important thing to take away from this article is that brainstorming for killer ideas is a long and tedious process. Don’t expect to have a “holy shit!” moment the first day. Stick with it and get an opinion from as many people as you can.

12 Reasons to Invest in Africa

Forget the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Larry Seruma, chief investment officer of Nile Capital Management, says many retail investors are missing a tremendous opportunity for growth in Africa. Seruma manages the Nile Pan Africa fund, the first actively managed, U.S.-based mutual fund to focus exclusively on Africa. He recently released a report, which can be seen here, that explains his investment firm's reasons for investing in the continent.

Seruma says more investors will begin to look outside of developed markets like the United States for growth, because those markets aren't expected to grow as fast as they have in the past. "It's only much more recently you're beginning to see these huge disparities coalesce," he says. "The U.S. is going to have very low investment opportunities going forward."

[See U.S. News's Mutual Fund Score to find the best investments for you.]
Investing in Africa involves plenty of risks. The biggest, Seruma says, is liquidity. "Liquidity is really the ability to trade frequently," he says. "When you want to get out of a position, it's not easy to get out of a position." Executing trades can be difficult because some Africanstock markets aren't as transparent and not as much trading takes place compared with, say, the S&P 500. There are other concerns, including the threat of government and corporate corruption. Many African countries have become functioning democracies, however, according to Seruma.
There are a number of other funds that give investors access to Africa and other "frontier" markets, which are also sometimes called pre-emerging markets. Templeton Frontier Marketsand iShares MSCI South Africa Index ETF are two examples. Out of the 53 countries in Africa, Seruma's fund currently invests in 14, which together account for about 90 percent of Africa's overall market capitalization. Here are Seruma's reasons for investing in Africa.

'Ground-floor opportunity.' Seruma says many investors have already missed what he calls a "ground-floor opportunity" in Africa. For the decade ending Dec. 31, 2009, an African composite index made up of eight countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt, returned about 14 percent annualized. South Africa alone returned an average of 13 percent per year over that period. Compare that with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which returned about 7 percent annualized, or the S&P 500, which lost about 3 percent over the same time period. He compares the risk versus return ratio in Africa today with emerging markets like China, India, and Brazil in the late 1900s—meaning that investors who enter a new high-growth market first reap the highest returns over time because they're willing to take on more risk.
[See The Opportunity in Africa.]

Low correlation. Correlation is a measure of how investments perform in relation to each other. A low correlation, for example, means that two securities will frequently move in opposite directions. According to Seruma's research, from January 2002 through June 2009, an African composite index of eight countries had a correlation of 0.59 with the S&P 500, 0.66 with the MSCI EAFE Index (which measures developed markets outside of North America), and 0.60 with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. That means that 59 percent of the time, the returns of the African index differed from those of the S&P 500. Investors can use correlation statistics to find out how to better diversify their portfolios. "The African markets have a very low correlation with domestic or other emerging markets, so [you have a] good opportunity to actually reduce risk in the overall portfolio," he says. Diversifying your portfolio among uncorrelated assets can help offset big losses.

[See Why Emerging Markets Belong in Your Portfolio.]

Strong growth expected. According to projections from the World Bank, nine of the 15 countries in the world with the highest rate of five-year economic growth are in Africa. Seruma estimates that Africa is likely to grow by 4.7 percent over the next five years. Economists expect much slower growth in places like the United States and U.K. over the next few years. "It's a pretty huge growth differential," he says.

Profitable companies. There are a number of well-known companies that are based in Africa, including South African Breweries (a subsidiary of SABMiller) and telecom company MTN. Africa's total stock market capitalization now exceeds $1 trillion.A recent study by two economists, Paul Collier and Jean-Louis Warnholz, found that from 2002 to 2007, the average annual return on capital of African companies was 65 percent to 70 percent higher than that of comparable companies in China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. That means the African companies were more profitable.
[See 7 Great Dividend Funds.]

Demand for commodities. "It's mainly driven by [the] BRICs," Seruma says. "As they industrialize, they're going to be demanding more and more of these commodities." For instance, 10 percent of the world's oil reserves and 40 percent of the world's proven gold reserves are found in Africa, according to Seruma.

Increasingly less violent. According to Freedom House, 63 percent of Africa's population now lives in countries designated "free or partially free." Compare that with Asia, which has a score of 66 percent. Seruma says most African countries now have functioning democracies. "It's a very different picture from what it was 20 years ago, and that has increasedinvestment," he says.
China's involvement in the region. Seruma singles out China because many Chinese companies—some of which are backed by the government—have made significant investments in Africa. "They are really taking a long-term view about investing in Africa," he says. The governments of countries like China have realized that they're going to need resources from the African continent to fund their growth and consumption in the future, Seruma says.
[See 3 Ways to Invest in China's Powerhouse Economy.]

Infrastructure spending. Countries are no longer coming to Africa solely to extract resources. They're beginning to stay and help make important infrastructure improvements in the continent, Seruma says. "The old story of investment in Africa was 'let us get the natural resources out of the ground and immediately ship it out,'" Seruma says. "Now it's changing. Not only do they go to Africa and make an investment in Africa, but they're also making the additional development projects." For instance, diamond giant De Beers recently signed a deal to mine diamonds in Botswana, including a commitment to build a diamond sorting facility.

Low debt. Concerns about sovereign debt—the debt that governments owe—has made headlines in Europe. Countries like Greece, Portugal, and most recently, Ireland have seen their debt downgraded by ratings agencies like Standard & Poor's. The United States also faces a huge budget deficit. Seruma says he believes that the United States will see five or six more years of low interest rates, which will lead many investors to look to different regions of the world for higher yield. "The capital being pushed out of the developed markets is going to benefit Africa," he says. "We believe this time around, there is some sustainability in terms of capital flows." Many African countries don't have the same worries. Seruma cites Nigeria, which has a debt-to-GDP ratio of only 18 percent, compared with countries like Greece and Japan whose debt-to-GDP ratio is more than 100 percent.

Growing investment from abroad. Seruma also cites a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report, which shows that capital flows to Africa are higher than three of the four BRIC countries. Africa is ahead of Brazil, India, and Russia. It's second only to China.
Attractive valuations. Seruma believes that many African countries are currently trading at attractive valuations. He says the average price-to-earnings ratio for African companies is about 8 to 9 percent compared with the S&P 500, which has an average P/E ratio of about 15 or 16 percent. "There's a huge valuation differential that is not explained by the risk," he says.
Young demographics. Compared with other regions of the world, Africa has a much younger median age, which means African governments aren't as burdened by elderly populations andpension plans. It also means that Africa has a young, vibrant workforce, Seruma says. Africa's most populous nation is Nigeria, which Seruma accounts for about a quarter of Africa's total population. Nigeria's median age is 19 years old. Compare that with 37 in the United States, 40 in the U.K., and 45 in Japan.

Please call me in case you wish to meet me and discuss and other issues.

making the right connections will give your idea, business and career the edge.

Taking things for granted is something we all do from time to time and our personal relationships are perhaps the greatest sufferers. It is a rare occasion when we take time to consider the way in which those personal relationships are formed. The reason why we should is because personal relationships are central to our contentment and prospective success.

A good example of this is networking. Your ability to form both formal and informal associations with others can be decisive to your chances of achieving happiness and success in your future life. You may be comfortable networking, you may not, but it is an unarguable truth that making the right connections will give your business or career the edge.

Developing interpersonal skills is crucial if you want to gain confidence. Doing this comes naturally to some of us - but even for those people who exude charisma by the bucketload, it would do no harm to look at the science behind personal relationships. By fine tuning our technique in forming relationships we can almost guarantee success rather than just leaving it completely to chance.

There are a number of qualities which we associate with friendship and perhaps the most significant is similarity. Our friendships are often based on mutual likes and dislikes. We frequently become friends with those who have the same morals or principles as we do. On a cultural level we hit it off with people who have similar views on politics or the arts. In addition, we normally agree on our dislikes as well. In a nutshell, we will associate ourselves with those who mirror what we consider to be the most important attributes.

Unfortunately, we will not always be lucky enough to strike up a natural rapport with someone at work or in our business based on shared tastes. However, there are ways we can generate an illusion of similarity and familiarity. Professionals call this technique mirroring. It may not be easy to say but the concept is simple. Mirroring is a behaviour pattern that can be observed in people who like one another. If you are on a date and are looking for some sign that your date is interested then take a close look at their body language. If you see that they are replicating your gestures and movements then it's very possible you are on to a winner! And, of course, you can exploit this technique to your own advantage.

The objective is to manipulate the individuals' subconsciousness into registering you as a friend and not a threat. This can be done without the other person being aware, for instance adopting a similar posture, nodding your head when they nod, smiling when they smile or matching the tone and volume of their voice. This may seem a bit devious or calculating at first but look at it this way - it's not only humans who display mirroring - it can be seen in any group of animals that have evolved intricate social structures. Observations of chimpanzees for example have shown that mirroring occurs within their community environment... its just natures way of gaining a social advantage in complex societies. By being aware of and utilising these techniques you are simply giving yourself the upper hand.

If we are being honest then we have to admit that there is nothing we like more than to be given a pat on the back every now and again. We are stimulated when we receive praise. It makes us more productive and lends confidence to our ability of achieving that which we desire. Being acknowledged for our accomplishments is one of the greatest feel good moments. Do you think that we would have Academy Award ceremonies or Nobel prizes if it were otherwise? When developing relationships the way you give out praise to those around you is crucial. In the workplace one of the biggest reasons for resentment is often not due to pay or conditions but to not feeling appreciated. A single memo from the manager thanking the staff for a job well done can have at least the same impact as the promise of a pay rise. But be careful - too much praise can lessen the effect or even worse, imply insincerity to the individual involved. Used properly, calculated praise is an excellent relationship enhancer.

As a final point let's look briefly at the way you approach other people. In all relationships, personal or otherwise, if you make your intention when communicating with others appear to be a wish to connect with them rather than as a means to get something from them, you will have far more success in forming an affiliation with them. This is because you will have put them at ease and made them feel like they are desired on a more personal level.

SpicyNodes: Sample nodemap

SpicyNodes: Sample nodemap

This is what creates the space for a college student to earn $1,000,000 online in just a few months with a clever idea.

If you enjoy being online this one is easy to do. Get signed up with Google Adsense, Amazon.com’s Affiliate Program, and Linkshare, just to name a few. You may never make a ton of money doing this, but you will probably earn enough to buy a few extra cups of coffee each month,so long as it's coming out of pockets and not your parents.If you love playing online games and you can level your characters or make gold quickly, then you can make a decent amount of money doing it as a side business. Besides, learning to set the prices of online auction houses is an excellent compliment to an economics class!,                                                                                                                                                        
                   
                                    Can you Write a sentence? Then you may have what it takes to make money as a Freelance Writer. You don’t have to have a degree in English either. In fact, if you can write in an easy to read manner, you have what it takes to make money writing Web content, short stories and other media. You can sell articles on Forums like DigitalPoint and SitePoint, but don’t expect to make a whole lot,                                                              
            In my opinion, this isn’t as easy , but it’s real close. There are companies that receive thousands of emails every day that need to be read. Obviously the CEO or other employees can’t spend every day reading emails, so they outsource this. There are several companies where they outsource this type of work as well as other tedious, time consuming chores such as product testing, online surveys, online mystery shopping and other. send earnings is one such company that other companies outsource to. Consumers such as you sign up and are normally paid on a per assignment completed basis. The pay varies by what type of assignment you choose. You choose where you want to make money

Be very specific in your intentions for your life

I once read somewhere that eighty-five percent of people acquire their current job through the recommendation of a friend. This is contrary to the misguided belief that the proper way to find a job is constructing resumes, internet searches, classified searches, emails, faxes, persistent phone calls, and so on. Rather, the true secret to successfully conducting a job search is to treat your entire life as an interview. That is, realizing that the vast majority of people find their jobs as a result of establishing a meaningful connection with another human being, you should focus on presenting yourself to the world in a way that is consistent with the type of job opportunity you would like to attract