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Archive for the ‘Motivation’ Category

Outcomes are the result of every task or activity we have done up until the point we’ve achieved a result. The thing about change is we never see change as it’s happening. Because change is gradual, we only see it when we look back!

When the Cardinals are called to elect a new Pope, they were provided room and board by the Vatican until a decision was made. One time, the process took three years! Immediately following that election, the Vatican implemented a new rule pertaining to room and board. Cardinals were advised that going forward the Vatican would provide a place to stay and three meals the first day, two meals the second day and one meal the third day. Since then, she said, a Pope has been elected within three days.

Perhaps it’s time to take a look at what we are rewarding at work and begin questioning whether those behaviors are in alignment with the results we expect to achieve. Now would be an excellent time to change that!

Fifteen billion smackers: That’s the value Microsoft recently slapped on Facebook when the computer giant invested $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Mark Zuckerberg’s online social-networking site.

You could seethe with envy — or you could chase your own fortune on the Web.

Some online businesses require only a few hundred dollars in equipment, while others demand significant hardware and perhaps even a warehouse. Some might make you rich; others might just cover beer money. And all involve various levels of time, capital and technological skill….Full story here

To whom it may concern:

I have always loved humor and laughter. As a young engineer I got an impulse to start a Dial-a-Joke in the San Jose/San Francisco area. I was aware of such humor services in other countries, such as Australia. This idea came from my belief in laughter. I could scarcely believe that I was the first person to create such a simple service in my region. Why was I the first? This was 1972 and it was illegal in the U.S. to use your own telephone. It was illegal in the U.S. to use your own answering machine. Hence it also virtually impossible to buy or own such devices. We had a monopoly phone system in our country then.

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LawPivot is an online market for legal services. It’s a way for companies to confidentially obtain crowdsourced answers to their questions from lawyers and to also find lawyers to retain. Two lawyers with tech experience, Jay Mandal (formerly the lead mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Apple) and Nitin Gupta (formerly an intellectual property litigation lawyer at Townsend and Townsend and Crew) are the co-founders. In this post, I asked Nitin to answer the most common questions of high-tech entrepreneurs. Read more on this story here.

Well, if Mark Zuckerberg’s image wasn’t already bolstered enough by his recent appearance on 60 Minutes, today’s announcement might help polish it a bit more.

Zuckerberg is one of 17 of the latest billionaires to sign the Giving Pledge, a joint effort from Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to encourage wealthy individuals “to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to the philanthropic causes and charitable organizations of their choice either during their lifetime or after their death,” according to the organization’s web site. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news early Thursday morning. More on this story via this link.

Advances in digital bookselling have usually pushed independent bookstores further and further out of the literary game. But Google’s new store is dealing them back in. Here’s how.

If you stroll on over to your corner bookstore this week and ask the person behind the counter about Google’s new ebookstore, which launches today, you probably won’t be greeted with the kind of teeth-gnashing that has accompanied other digital developments, like Amazon’s online bookstore or the advent of proprietary e-readers. Instead, you might actually be greeted with some excitement and delight. That’s because Google is taking a different approach to selling e-books than Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Rather than create a closed system that leaves others out in the cold, Google is actually partnering with independent bookstores to sell its wares–and share the profits. More on this story here.

Technology is continuously opening up new opportunities for people who want to work from the comfort of their own home. Remote workers or Telecommuters as some others call them are finding and landing profitable jobs though it may not come as easy as it was, there are however some great options listed for each aspiring workers benefit. Read more on this link.

After we reported on rumors that Yahoo plans to cut as much as 20 percent of its workforce a few weeks ago, Yahoo called that number “misleading.” But layoffs do seem to be brewing, judging by the increasing number of tips we’ve been getting.

On November 23, one tipster wrote that layoffs would be “officially happening after Thanksgiving but before Xmas 2010.” Then yesterday, we started getting tips that the layoffs would begin today. Some product groups that seem to be targeted for cuts include Flickr and Yahoo Groups. More on this story here.

The Internet has replaced many of the most important aspects of business that were once either hidden or handled through traditional means. One would manage their reputation through the press, with television commercials, and by promoting word of mouth.

Today, people are learning more about businesses online than through any other media source and as a result, the “Trolls” now have something to say about it. More about this story here.