Are some people too stupid to realize their startup will fail and they are wasting their time and money?

There are two kinds of people in the world. 

1. The people too stupid to realize that their startup will fail.
2. The people too smart to ever start one.

http://www.quora.com/Startups/Are-some-people-too-stupid-to-realize-their-startup-will-fail-and-they-are-wasting-their-time-and-money

How To Become A Customer Acquisition Expert by Brian Balfour (A Summary)

Know the basiscs of all the Sections in all of the layers, and then go deep on 2 of the third layer:

I personally need to brush up on Statistics and Behavioral Psychology from the Base Layer

Which channels should you go deep on?
1. Your preference and skills: Think about who you are and what you would enjoy.  Quant VS Creative.
2. Take a bet on emerging Channel:  Where is market going, and where can I become an expert.

Get Something to Experiment With
Find a product/company to try out what you learn as you take courses.

Learn from Others
List of awesome marketers who product content online:
Andy Johns, Noah Kagan, Andrew Chen, Rand Fishkin, Avinash Kaushik, Dave McClure, Hiten Shah

Learn From Other Companies
Choose sections you want to go deep on and find companies executing in these sections.  For example, in content marketing I would pay attention to companies such as Moz, Hubspot, KissMetrics, and Buffer.  Use tools to research and follow their strategies such as Moz Research Tools, Followerwonk, SEMrush, WhatRunsWhere, and SocialCrawlytics.  

Keep a ScrapBook in Evernote
Keep collection of examples, resources of great marketing email, landing page, ad creative, info graphic, on boarding technique, etc.

== REFERENCE SECTION OF LINKS ( A DIRECT COPY FROM BLOG POST)==


BASE LAYER
Basic Statistics
All of digital marketing is going to have a quantative element.  It is important to understand the basics of statistics so you can make sense of the numbers.  At a minimum I recommend being familiar with, statistical significance, distribution analysis, confidence intervals, regression, and mean/median/mode. 
Introduction to Statistics via Udacity (course) 
Statistics One via Coursera (course) 

 Basic Programming
Programming should be required for anyone who is going to work in a technology company.  But specifically for a role in marketing you will find that the biggest resource constraint for any company is engineering.  So the more you know how to do on your own, the faster you can move and the more value you can add.   You don’t need to be a master programmer but it is very useful if you understand code and know how to hack specifically on front end technologies including HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.  Bonus for learning a language like Ruby on Rails or Python.  Courses I recommend:
Intro to Programming (base concepts)
Learn HTML and CSS via Treehouse
Javascript and JQuery via Treehouse
Simple Ruby on Rails via Treehouse 
Intro to Computer Science (for Python) via Udacity

Product Design & UX Principles
The past few years we have seen a greater movement towards design as a critical piece of communicating marketing efforts on the web.  So much so that in some cases design can be a competitive advantage (link).  You don’t need to become a designer, but you need to understand how elements of design interact with marketing.  
Design For Hackers (Book)
Lean UX (Book)
Dribbble (Resource for Inspiration)

Analytics 
Online marketing has become more and more analytics driven the past five years, and I believe we are just getting started.  Understanding the principles of analytics and how to integrate and use analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel, KissMetrics is vital.  
Analytics For Growth (Course)
Web Analytics (Course) 
Lean Analytics (Book)
Web Analytics 2.0 (Book)
Avinash Kaushik Blog (Blog)
Google Analytics Learn (Resource)

Behavioral Psychology
Statistics, analytics, and excel will help you understand what users are doing.   But a key to marketing is understanding why users are doing what they are doing.  To understand why, behavioral psychology comes in handy.  
Nir Eyal (Blog)
Influence (Book)
The Power of Habit (Book) 
Paradox of Choice (Book) 
Drive (Book)
Thinking Fast and Slow (Book) 
Predictably Irrational (Book)  

Branding/Positioning/Storytelling
Most users/customers don’t respond to you selling features.  They respond to you selling a story.  Telling that story through branding and positioning is critical to standing out of the crowd in todays noisy market.  
Why, How, What Framework (Video)
Why, How, What (Resource Site)
Positioning (book)

MARKETING FOUNDATION LAYER

Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is the process and tactics used to uncover why your users aren’t converting to a particular action, and the things you can change to improve.  A lot of the use cases will talk about Landing Page CRO, but a lot of these same techniques can be used to optimize other actions within products.  
The Big Picture of CRO by Rand Fishkin (Video) 
CRO Basics (Resource)
50 Posts on Conversions (Resource)
Unbounce (Blog)
Conversion Rate Experts (Blog)
Optimizely (Blog)

Copywriting
Whether you are writing full blog posts, or just two line Google Ads, copywriting and the consumer psychology behind copywriting is an essential skill.  A couple suggestions on courses
The Web Copywriting Bible (eBook)
The Only Copywriting Course You’ll Ever Need (Video)
Copyblogger (Blog)
Gary Halbert Boron Letters

Funnel Marketing
Funnel marketing is framework in how to map out journey from awareness to purchase/conversion of your customer and user.  Understanding this framework is vital for any online marketer.  
Startup Metrics For Pirates by Dave McClure’s (Presentation)
Startup Metrics For Pirates (Video)
See - Think - Do Framework (Resource)

A/B & Multivariate Testing
A/B testing teaches you how to properly test new ideas for copy, features, calls to action, everything.  You will start to understand why one of the base layer pillars is statistics :)
Always Be Testing (Book) 
Optimization and A/B Testing (Course)
A/B Testing Ideas (Blog)

Basic Photoshop & Wireframing Skills
I commonly find myself in photoshop/wireframing tools tweaking landing pages, calls to action, ad creative, etc.  This is similar to Programming and Database skills.  You can either wait around for someone else to do it, or know some basic skills and jump in yourself.  Bottom line recommendation, get familiar with Photoshop. 
Photoshop Foundations (Course) 

Note…There are TONS of photoshop courses online.  Here are some more on Lynda.com.  You do not need to become a photoshop expert.  Take the first course I listed, and go further depending on your interest.    

Database Querying 
There will always be a set of data you want to look at that isn’t available through your analytics or in house tools.  Especially in the early days when you probably don’t have the resources to invest in in-house tools.  You can either wait for engineers to pull the data for you, or learn a little SQL and jump in yourself.  
SQL Database for Beginners (Course) 

Excel & Modeling 
No matter how many analytics tools you have within a company you will always resort to excel at some point to analyze data.  Knowing your way around excel will become very valuable. Course I recommend:
Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced Excel via Udemy (course)  

 
CHANNEL EXPERTISE LAYER: Know the basics of each but then go deep on 2 of them:

Virality/WOM
Virality and WOM is core growth component to most online B2C companies.  While there are few resources on the topic, you should understand two things.  
1.  The different types of viral distribution.  
2.  How to measure, model, and analyze viral distribution.  
Viral Marketing Is Not A Strategy by Andrew Chen
What’s Your Viral Loop 
The Science Behind Viral Marketing 
How To Model Viral Growth Part 1(Blog Series) 
How To Model Viral Growth Part 2
How To Model Viral Growth Part 3

Search PPC
Search PPC is a very crowded channel, but can still be one of the most effective due to its high intent.  
PPC Training (Course) 
Learning Adwords (Course)
Google Adwords Essential Training (Course)
Wordstream Blog (Resource)

Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads is becoming one of my favorite channels due to the unique targeting.  The channel is still changing quickly as Facebook tweaks their optimization algorithm and launches new ad formats.  
Starters Guide to Facebook Ads (Resource) 
Profitability With Facebook Ads (Course) 
Traffic Black Book 2.0 Facebook Section (Course)

SEO
While SEO is another crowded channel, it is still driving growth for many recent high growth startups such as Quora and AirBnB.  SEO is a very valuable channel to learn and harness.
Moz.com SEO Learning Center (Resource)
Moz.com Blog
SEO Training (Course)
The ClickMinded SEO Optimization (Course) 
Distilled Training (Resource)

Social
Social is an extension of almost all marketing strategies today.  There is a growing list of social publishers (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, Vine, the list goest on).  Understand which publishers and tools to use for which strategies.    
Social Media Marketing w/ Facebook and Twitter (Course)
Social Media Market Training (Course)
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the latest rage especially among B2B startups.  Content marketing paired with a high powered social or SEO strategy is extremely effective.  If you think it just involves blogging and info graphics, then I highly recommend digging deeper into the resources below.  
Inbound Marketing University (Resource) 
Content Marketing Institute (Resource)
Inbound.org (Community)
52 Content Marketing Lessons
Display & Retargeting
While most marketers turn their nose up at display ads, it is still one of the highest volume channels available.  The display world can be massively complicated (http://visual.ly/display-advertising-technology-landscape) , so take the time to learn the details.  
Media Buy Academy (Course)
Traffic Black Book 2.0 (Course)
Mobile
Mobile is an emerging channel still.  The number of resources is slim, and the ones that exist don’t go very deep.  Many of the other channels I have listed here (Facebook, Display, Google) have mobile components.  The best way to learn is to dive in.  
Market Motive Mobile Marketing (Course)
Mobile Marketing by Knowledge.ly (Course)
Hacking App Store Growth (Course) 
Sales
Efficient sales models are still a leading path to growth especially for anyone focusing on B2B companies.  
Building A Sales & Marketing Machine by David Skok (Blog Series)
Ultimate Sales Machine (Book)
PR
I have to admit, PR is probably one of my least favorite marketing initiatives.  It is not a marketing strategy in itself, but it is an extension of a strategy with another channel at its core.  My personal recommendation is to become an expert in one of the other channels I have listed here.  
How To Get Media Coverage For Your Startup (Blog Post)
Jason Calacanis On Startup PR (Blog Post)
Media Training Starter Series (Course)
Startup PR (Course)  
Email Marketing
Email is still one of the most (if not the most) effective communication channel with customers and users.  Mobile and the use of data is changing how companies do email marketing.  Here are some suggested resources to get started:
Mailchimp Blog 
50 Posts About Email Marketing
Email Marketing Statistics and Benchmarks
Advanced Email Marketing 
Partnerships
See my post - From 0 to 2 Million DAU: A Guide To Growing Your Startup via Partnerships where I cover this channel at length.   

How we got our first 2,000 users doing things that don't scale by Ryan Hoover (A Summary)

Summarizing: http://ryanhoover.me/post/72663537463/how-we-got-our-first-2-000-users-doing-things-that

MVP - ProductHunt began as a mailing list using Linkydink.

Private Beta - Email link to supporters and product influencers for feedback on wireframes and get them excited.

Quiet Beta - Iron out bugs and keep getting feedback with high interaction

Public Launch - PandoDaily, and FastCompany articles came out and ProductHunt emailed all early adopters with two specific asks:


Post a Product - have a healthy level of activity when upon launch


Share the Article - To maximize exposure, we asked early adopters - many who have a large following and influence - to share the article. To make it even easier, we provided a “click to tweet” link that opened Twitter with a pre-created message. 


The Manual Slow Growth - Found influencers and good contributors to community via Rapportive and Intercom.io and reached out to them personally to open lines for future feedback, referrals to product people and funding.

Startup = Growth by Paul Graham (Summary)

http://paulgraham.com/growth.html

Startup = Growth - everything else is ignored.

Redwoods
Startups are all about growth and can scale.  A barbershop is not a startup b/c it can’t scale.

Rate
Growth of a successful startup usually has 3 phases:
 a) There’s an initial period of slow or no growth while the startup tries to figure out what it’s doing.
 b) As the startup figures out how to make something lots of people want and how to reach those people, there’s a period of rapid growth.
 c) Eventually a successful startup will grow into a big company.  Growth will slow, partly due to internal limits and partly because the company is starting to bump up against the limits of the markets it serves.
(these together produce an S-curve)

Calculating Growth Rate = Ratio of new customers / existing ones.

A good growth rate at YC is 5-7% per week, if you hit 10% a week you’re doing exceptionally well.  If you’re at 1% then you haven’t figured out what you’re doing.

If pre-revenue, the next best thing to measure is number of 'active users’

Compass
At YC, they pick a growth rate they think they can hit and then just do that.  This becomes an optimization problem, and this narrow focus can be very effective, because you don’t have to think about what the program should do, just make it better.  For most programmers, this is very satisfying work.  The narrow focus makes it a sort of puzzle, and you’re generally surprised how fast you can solve it.

Focusing on hitting a growth rate:
 - narrows startup down to a single problem
 - use growth rate to make all of your decisions for you (should i spend 2 days at a conference, hire another programmer, focus more on marketing, spending time w/ big customer?)

Value

weekly growth	yearly company size
1%	1.7x
2%	2.8x
5%	12.6x
7%	33.7x
10%	142.0x

Understand
Founders, investors and acquirers form a natural ecosystem.

The reason Facebook bought Instagram was that it was valuable and dangerous, and what made it so was growth.

Understanding growth is what starting a startup consists of.  

"A startup founder is in effect an economic research scientist.  Most don’t discover anything that remarkable, but some discover relativity.” - Paul Graham

Do Things That Don't Scale - by Paul Graham (Summary)

Summarizing Paul Graham's Post - Do Things That Don't Scale

http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

1) Recruit users manually like crazy (ie. Stripe and Airbnb)

2 reasons why founders resist going out and recruiting:
 a) shyness
 b) laziness

Example: Stripe.com - aggressive early user acquisition

2) Fragile Ask yourself: “how big could this get if we did the right things?”
 - the right things seem laborious and inconsequential

3) Delight your first customers 
Finding early types of users - Pinterest - Ben Silbermann noticed that a lot of the earliest Pinterest  users were interested in design, so he went to a conference of design bloggers to recruit users and that worked well.

4) Experience - Engage your earliest users and talk to them and watch them use the product.

5) Fire - focus on a narrow initial market and really learn what it is.

6) Meraki - did thing that didn’t scale : assembling routers themselves (this section was not too worth reading)

7) Consult - for a single person and fit the product to do exactly what they want.

8) Manual - do things manually at first, and then gradually automate the bottlenecks

9) Big - the big launch never works, you need to get users, learn from them and then get more.  How many successful companies “LAUNCHES” do you remember?  It’s about making your customers happy months after they sign up.

10) Vector - recruit users manually and give them an overwhelmingly good experience—and the main benefit of treating startups as vectors will be to remind founders they need to work hard in two dimensions.

In the best case, both components of the vector contribute to your company's DNA: the unscalable things you have to do to get started are not merely a necessary evil, but change the company permanently for the better. If you have to be aggressive about user acquisition when you're small, you'll probably still be aggressive when you're big. If you have to manufacture your own hardware, or use your software on users's behalf, you'll learn things you couldn't have learned otherwise. And most importantly, if you have to work hard to delight users when you only have a handful of them, you'll keep doing it when you have a lot.

Cameesa Sold to Zazzle.com

Hey guys,


We recently sold Cameesa.com to Zazzle.com and I plan on writing posts back on my blog as before.

Kamil

Cameesa - 99% done

So i've been working on a startup company for the last year and a half...actually since january 2007 (since I got back from Costa Rica). Many things have happened and we are still planning to launch very soon...our original date was March 1, 2008....we know how startups work though.

We have recently finished our Teaser page (
) and are now working on our Marketing campaign....which I will write about very soon. We are planning to reach out to design/t-shirt bog sites and get their advice on our approach.

Cameesa is 99% done. But the last 1% takes 99% of the time (IT joke)

Ground Hog Theory

I've been very busy trying to startup the web company for artists and designers. Lesson of the day : Focus on your strengths and consistently.

When feeling overwhelmed...what do you do?

Every once in a while I feel overwhelmed with how much I have to do. This includes, work, life goals, daily chores, and other things. At these times, it seems like I start procastinating cause I don't know where to start, and where to end. I am not sure how to deal with these situations, and what type of mentality is needed. Although, I know that I will get through the situation, it is very stressful at the time.

So, how do you guys deal with situations like this? How do you deal with stressful situations, and feelings of being overwhelmed? How do you not lose your cool, and maintain your composure?

I am very curious to know...cause I'm sure everyone has their own way.

Who cares? Neanderthal November & Festivus 2007

Not sure if you guys heard, but last month was Neanderthal November. Some friends from Canada, whom I haven't seen in over 10 years decided to throw me a surprise visit in Chicago. I got an e-mail on Thursday morning letting me know that they were coming up on Friday afternoon. It was a great visit and fantastic to see them again. One of these friends introduced me to a ritual event that they have back in Calgary, Canada. This event is called Neanderthal November and consists of being a Neanderthal (not shaving at all) throughout the entire month of November.

I thought to myself that this was a brilliant idea and also wanted to challenge myself to see if I can do it. If I can stop caring of what others think of me, and stop caring of what I look like.

After weeks of itching, scratching, growing, and assault, the Neanderthal November beard was complete. Low and behold, here it is in the picture. (Man is it ugly)


When the month came to an end, I had truly learned that I don't care what others think of me, or what I look like. In addition, I decided to prepare myself for another yearly ritual (Festivus - House Party of the year - great times guys) by shaving all of my beard except for the moustache. This brought the ball game of 'looking and feeling cheesy' to a whole new level.


"You are a human being and as long as you are doing something in good spirit and with good intentions, as long as you are not harming another, then it is worth doing." - N.K. (Neanderthal Kamil)

Tom Mackenzie Interview - 2007 Chicago Marathon

In 1997, an eager 19 year old had a vision, and a goal. While overlooking Lake Michigan he thought to himself, "I am going to run a marathon before the age of 30 because it will show my hard work and dedication towards fitness." As the years passed, Tom Mackenzie remembered this goal and accomplished it on October 7, 2007 while running the 2007 Chicago Marathon.

Tom is the lead programmer on the Market Risk Team at Bank of America. He is a highly motivated and competitive individual. I got a chance to interview Tom about his experience, and intriguing goal pursuit. I have paraphrased his responses for clarity purposes.

What were you expecting after you fulfilled this goal and ran the marathon?
"I believed that running a marathon would show my commitment to staying fit, and boost my confidence in different areas of my life. For example, I believed that running a marathon would motivate me to be more productive in other areas of my life."

What did you realize while you were preparing for the marathon?
"One of the toughest, and weirdest, realizations I had was that you are born on your own and you die on your own. No one is going to fulfill your goals for you, you have to get off your a$$ and do it yourself. The sooner you accept this fact the better off you'll be." Tom spent approximately two hours per day, four days per week preparing. There were situations where he depended on people to be there for him, was let down, and eventually became mentally phased, and depressed on that particular training.
I agree with Tom completely. I believe that people are our biggest asset, but can also be a huge liability. People may be obstacles, and can diverge our plans if we allow them to.
"Some other troubles that I encountered while running was that my short-term goals were too ambitious and unrealistic. I was trying to run fast times for the short lags, and found that this ended up hurting me because I would be sore for the following day, and would have to take it off."
Surprisingly, Tom rarely thought about the end-goal (The Marathon), he stayed in the present and would think about the current day. So the end-goal was in his subconscious to do whatever needed to be done. When the marathon was coming closer, then he started thinking about this actual run, and realizing that he was truly going to fulfill the goals he set as a teenager. In addition, he thought of the end-goal when he was having a tough time getting motivated to run his daily race.

How was the actual marathon?
"The race was brutal. It was 90 degrees, and people were dropping like flies. I experienced some heat-exhaustion symptoms and had to start walking for part of the race. There were ambulances everywhere and people were laying all over the place. Three quarters through the race, they announced that the marathon was cancelled, but this was only a strategy to get the injured people to stop running/walking. I continued on my course."

How did you feel after you crossed the finish line?
"I felt sick, hot, and exhausted. I finished the race in 5:30:43, and my goal was to do it in under 4:00:00 hours. I don't feel that I completed my goal, and I don't think I would do it again. The marathon was not anything that I expected."

As Tom believed that running a martahon would not only help him reach his goal, but would also be a catalyst in other ares of his life. Hopefully it would spark ambition in his work life, and help him focus more intensely on his job, and/or other opportunities. In the end, the confidence was not boosted in the external world, but was increased in the marathon running world, where he saw that focusing on one thing so intensely, only made one better at that one thing, and atrophy in other areas of your life.

When we originally set out goals, it is to venture into lands, and emotions that we have not experienced before. A goal is a dream with a deadline. Thus, we don't set a goal to learn how to drive a car if we already know how to do it. We set goals in areas we haven't experienced before. However, by setting goals in areas where we are not experienced, we have a preconceived notion of what the results are, and what they are going to bring to us. In Tom's case he thought it would bring him confidence in other areas of his life, but it didn't really do that. It only made him a better long distance runner. We assume that something is reality, and have associations with certain things in our life and what they mean to us, but this is not true.

Principle 3 : Arouse in the other person an eager want

I give piano lessons to my neighbors every Tuesday, there are two 5-year old boys and their 7-year-old brother. There are times throughout the lesson when they will become bored, tired and frustrated. At these points in time I ask the one I'm teaching "Odysseus, what would you like to learn? or, what do you enjoy most about piano lessons?" Whatever the boys answer, I let them know that they are in control and we will do what they like now. Their idea of learning, and fun during piano is a little different than mine; however, I must compromise and give them what they want or else we will all end up unhappy.

Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something. This includes donating $1,000 anonymously to the Red Cross. Why? Because if you found that money was more precious then the feeling of charity, then you would have kept the money.

Since we understand this premise as the foundation of the principle, it is safe to say that whenever we talk to anyone, we are better of talking about what they want, and helping them to get it. So, you can influence, and make a person want to do something by understanding what they want out of a situation.

Find out what they want and truly needed by simply asking "what do you want out of this?"

According to Dale Carnegie, here is one of the best bits of advice ever given about the fine art of human relationships :
"If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from that person's angle as well as from your own." - Henry Ford

Get out there and learn what other want and need.

We vs I

"I made turkey dinner for everybody."

The turkey dinner "you" made was not made by "you." It was made by the gardener who picked the potatoes, the butcher that killed the turkey, as well as the lady who milked the cow. "You" helped in preparing it.

"You" have not done a single thing in your life without someone else's help.

Stop stressing on the word "I" and begin using "we" cause "you" have not done a single thing in your life without someone else's help. Think about that.

Life is a team sport. We help eachother. Lets keep it that way.

Principle 2 : Give Honest and Sincere Appreciation

I get my feeling of importance by beeing included within a group. This is actually one of my strengths and weaknesses : "Harmony." I get my importance when a team depends on me and when people do well because of my help.

For example, I was a four year point guard while playing basketball at Saint Xavier University. I always got more of a rush by making an assist than scoring a basket, this was something that stimulated me, I wanted the other guys to succeed b/c of my help. On the contrary, I feel worthless when a team doesn't include me in something, or forgets to make any recognition of my efforts.

This strength/weakness defines who I am, what I stand for, and my character type. Some people feel important from being famous, others get it from making a lot of money, and others get it from WINning.

HOW DO YOU GET YOUR FEELING OF IMPORTANCE? or
WHAT CAN SOMEONE DO TO MAKE YOU 'NOT FEEL IMPORTANT'?


STOP......really think about these questions.......



A profound philosopher , John Dewey, said that the deepest urge in hman nature is "the desire to be important." It ranks up there with Health, Food, Sleep, the things money will buy, and sexual gratification.

So, the point is to find out what makes others feel important, and pay attention to their improvements and changes in these areas. When the right time presents itself and you see an improvement in these areas make sure to give compliments and sincere appreciation.

You're probably saying "if I give too many compliments and appreciation it'll seem fake." This is where the distinction of appreciation and flattery is made. If you are giving compliments and don't truly mean them, then that will be flattery.

Dale Carnegie mentioned "The difference between appreciation and flattery? That is simple. One is sincere and the other insincere. Once comes from the heart out; the other from the teeth out. One is unselfish; the other selfish. One is universally admired; the other universally condemned.

We want to stop thinking about ourself 100% of the day, and take 5% of each day and listen to someone else's points. At this time we can truly appreciate who they are, and what they're saying.

True Appreciation from Dale Carnegie Story:

Once upon a time, a woman was involved in a self-improvement program at her church. She asked her husband to help her by listing six things he believed she could do to help her become a better wife.

He reported to the class : "I was surprised by such a request. Frankly, it would have been easy for me to list six things I would like to chnage about her--my heavens, she could have listed a thousand things she would like to change about me--but I didn't. I said to her, 'Let me think about it and give you an answer in the morning.'

"The next morning I got up very early and called the florist and hand them send six red roses to my wife with a note saying : 'I can't think of six things I would like to change about you. I love you the whe way you are.'

"When I arrived at home that evening, who do you think greeted me at the door? That's right. My wife! She was almost in tears. Needless to say, I was extremely glad I had not criticized her as she had requested.

"The following Sunday at church, after she had reported the results of her assignment, several women with whom she had been studying came up to me and said, 'That was the most considerate thing I have ever heard.' It was then I realized the power of appreciation."

Who will you give roses to today? Who will you listen to today?

"Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him." - Emerson

Principle 1 : Don't Criticize, Condemn or Complain

I am currently reading "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie . In each chapter there is a lesson to be learned, I will explain them here - Lesson 1.

"God himself does not propose to judge man until the end of his days," why should you and I?

Abraham Lincoln mentioned "Don't criticize others; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances." Put yourself in someone else's shoes before you criticize them, and understand why they make the decisions that they do. Criticizing and pointing the finger is the easy way out, DON'T BE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.

People justify their actions 99.9% of them time, so criticizing them will only higher their defenses, wound their pride and way of thinking. An example of this is one of Al Capone. Mr. Capone, the most notorious gangster in the US, considered himself a public benefactor - an unappreciated and misunderstood public benefactor. When criticized, he justified actions by stating that he was helping people that couldn't act for themselves. Al was one of those people in the 99.9% when he was justifying his actions.

Next time, before you criticize or condemn someone, remember that they will justify their actions in their head, and no progress will be made. The best way to approach a situation like this is to give constructive feedback, and try to understand them, and their situation.

The book mentions a great way to handle these situations : "B.F. Skinner, the world-famous psychologist, proved through his experiments that an animal rewarded for good behavior will learn much more rapidly and retain what it learns far more effectively than an animal punished for bad behavior. Later studies showed that the same applies for humans. By criticizing, we do not make lasting changes and ofter incur resentment."

Finally, repeated again in Dale's words : "Instead of condemning people, let's try to understand them. Let's try to figure out why they do what they do. That's a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism; and it breeds sympathy, tolerance and kindness. To know all is to forgive all."

Lesson 1 : Don't criticize, condemn or complain.

A great poem to help us remember this lesson, Father Forgets

Quote of the day

"Everything can be taken from a man but ...the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

-Viktor Frankl

Power of Teams (Quote)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world . . . Indeed it's the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead

Love + Vocation = Success

"And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy."
-Khalil Gibran

The only way you can be successful is by finding a vocation you love and are passionate about. Otherwise it will be very difficult for you achieve high levels of success. If you do not know what your true calling is, it may be beneficial to stop everything you're doing and lock yourself in a room until you find out. Spending a week locked in your room is nothing compared to wasting years engaging in meaningless activities.

Integrity and Business Success

There is strong correlation in the level of integrity one has and their net worth. An excellent example is Warren Buffet. He is one of the only Billionaires to make his billions investing in stocks through not only sound business fundamentals (value investing) but through strong moral judgements of character. Money is invested in corporations that are not only profitable but whose management possess high levels of integrity and respect for both their employees and shareholders.

Warren puts it very nicely in the following quote:

“You can't make a good deal with a bad person”
-Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet is one of many examples that prove morality makes good business sense. The books by Thomas Stanley that document his research of Millionaires are filled with numerous examples. I am by no means saying that you should be “good” so that you can get money but that money is actually a bi-product of being good and having a high level of integrity.

We at cameesa (our new venture) possess a reverence for our customers, investors and anyone our company touches and hold them in the highest regard. Our product’s ultimate goal is to create opportunities for others that were not present before by leveraging community based business models. We believe in sustainable, team-oriented business models where everyone in the community benefits and that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We also believe that the only way to conduct business in today’s competitive landscape is with honesty and integrity. It is extremely hard for us to believe it can be conducted in any other fashion.

If any of the aforementioned beliefs are corrupted, the business should cease operations immediately regardless of growth or profitability because it won’t survive the test of time.

Relationship between Courage and Confidence

I was recently listening to "On Being A Man" by David DeAngelo and heard something very interesting. He mentioned that a person cannot gain confidence and competence, if they don't encounter courage in their quest.

This makes perfect sense. When we do something for the very first time in our life, we have no experience, thus low, or no, confidence in it. Think of the first time you got onto your bicycle, you were not confidet that you could ride a bike. Thus, if it wasn't for courage, you would have never climbed up onto that seat. Courage put you in the face of danger, learning, pain, and ultimately experience in bicycle riding. Then, as your experience grew, so did your confidence, and you were a bicycle-riding maniac.

What are some other situations where you had used your courage? Did they improve your confidence? Where do you stand with these types of situations today? One recent experience in my life was the writing of this blog. I had zero experience, and low confidence in writing a Self-Development blog. But, as I gained couraged and put myself out there, I began to open up to people. Today, I am writing regular posts of how I am improving and what I am learning on a daily basis.

So, if you're scared or not confident in something, you must find courage first. Then, just do it.