Never Put Too Much Trust In Friends

I am in the process of reading The 48 Laws Of Power by Robert Greene. This book is very readable and provides a lot of insight that anyone of any background can use. I’m up to rule 7 or something like that but last night I learned firsthand how much utility these laws have. Rule #2 happens to be Never Put Too Much Trust In Friends, Learn How To Use Enemies.

I’ve recently moved into a new house with one of my best friends, and 2 other friends. They have cornered me in a few confrontations since we moved in, and suddenly kicked me out last night. I never thought this would happen coming from someone I considered such a good friend, but that just goes to show how applicable the laws in this book are.

Now I’m stuck scrambling for a new place when I just put all of the money I had into rent for this place. As If a 40 hour per week job, a full college schedule,  and girl problems weren’t enough for me… I had 99 problems when a bitch wasn’t one, but now I have 101…

Don’t Share Living Space With Friends

While I was transitioning into a house recently, I picked friends that I thought would be cool roommates in a 4 bedroom house. The house is big and spacious, and I got along with these friends previously so I figured the same if we moved in together. I was dead wrong. I’ve gotten bitched at for several reasons that didn’t really make sense.

Several of my other friends told me not to room with friends, and I didn’t listen. I wish I would have. Right now it’s getting to the point of me terminating my friendship with these people. As much as I don’t want that to happen, I guess I’ll see how things unfold from here.

This place was supposed to be my home, but how can you call a place “home” if you don’t feel comfortable there?

Why should every business develop a business plan?

The answer is simple. It works. Look back in history and see that the most successful entrepreneurs have had a solid business plan. This is essential not only in the content strategy, but in all of the operations.

Goal setting is an explicit part of productivity and should be the rule rather than the exception in the business plan. When objectives have been outlined, make sure you keep the company accountable, providing additional training if targets aren’t hit. In addition to missed sales targets, creative thinking is needed to think of ALL of the possible obstacles that may be encountered in the business activities.

Research is crucial to find out the target market and feasibility of the content or product, as well as what the competition is doing so you can not only copy what is working, but use innovative strategies to level the playing ground.

Your plan isn’t complete until you have answered all of the following questions:

• Who is the target market?
  • Age? Location? Interests? etc?
  • What are their wants and needs?
• How are these needs being met?
  • What can we do better?
• When is the best time to enter the market?
• How are we going to take action?
• Why is this going to work?

When you have fine-tuned your business plan, the next step is to present to investors. Professional attire and presentation skills are important, but the business plan is what venture capitalists and angel investors will really look at. It doesn’t matter if you drive a Ferrari and wear a hundred-thousand dollar business suit. In the end, investors are really looking for low risk, high profit ideas to fund.

Call me a nerd or whatever…

but I read a LOT. Back in middle school I was quite the book worm, reading in the library at lunch. I got made fun of for being a nerd (I thought it was because I was smart, but now realize it was my introverted personality) and eventually stopped reading as much.

In high school I was sick of not getting a girlfriend because of my social status, so I kind of stopped reading and focused on other things that pushed me out of my comfort zone. This included joining the stomp team. Not only was I the only white kid on the team, but I was the youngest as well (this was freshman year).

I hadn’t really read since then until my boss Michael Colagrossi gave me a self help book on attitude after getting hired as a Mortgage Consultant. I was skeptical about the book but it was very readable and I ended up enjoying and learning a lot from it. It also helped increase my confidence and reignite my interest in books.

Since then (December 2010) I’ve read 6 sales books, 2 psychology books, and a compilation of interviews. I will post reviews of them soon. Those are in addition to the books I’ve read in school. I have come to enjoy reading again, and I kind of wish I hadn’t stopped in the first place. Knowledge IS Power.

Time to get earthquake insurance?

Today ANOTHER earthquake hit Japan. This time it was a 6.3 and may or may not have been an aftershock of the previous 8.9 earthquake. That being said, 3 earthquakes within such a small amount of time worries me a bit. I live in Seattle, Washington which is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire. This area is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity. If there is really anything to the theories of the end of the world in 2012, everyone in the Ring of Fire should get earthquake insurance soon. Also maybe stock up on necessities such as water, canned food, etc?

Wonderful HIV/AIDS research advertisement

Check out this advertisement I came across yesterday while surfing random web pages. It counts backwards 90 days showing a substantial health improvement in a woman that has AIDS.

While I’m on the subject, last December CNN wrote an article on a potential HIV cure. It’s an incredible breakthrough but not applicable to most patients because of how dangerous it is. I wonder how close we are to an effective cure available to everyone?

Another earthquake!

This time the earthquake was in Burma, rather than Japan. It was only had a 6.8 magnitude but that is still enough to cause plenty of damage. Buildings near the epicenter were vulnerable, so there is a lot of expected damage. It was felt as far away as Vietnam at a 5.0 magnitude. There are no reports of damage in Vietnam so far.

AWESOME Save The Children campaign

I’ve always wanted to think of a really cool fund raising idea. This one by Save The Children blew me away. The intro page gives some background information about the world’s distribution of wealth, and how likely you are to be born in any given country. Then you spin a wheel and it shows what country you could have been born in if you had to start over.

It also lists a bunch of stats on things in that country that negatively affect children that live there. There are links on those pages that you can donate to, and they’ve integrated social media sharing. Here’s my page (I was born in China for this)

If you know of any other creative fund raising ideas, please let me know in the comments!

How to save money on your school books

All registered for Spring quarter, I noticed that the book for BUS 270 (The entrepreneurship class at Shoreline Community College) was not yet available in the book store. Wanting to get a head start, I checked the ISBN on Amazon. It didn’t exist. The school’s book store said that it was the 14th edition, so I e-mailed my instructor to verify. He said no, that it’s a bundled version that comes with an educational version of Business Plan Pro, a software by Palo Alto.

The Business Plan Pro software is awesome! It has hundreds of templates to choose from as a basis for any business plan you can think of. It has step by step instructions so there’s no chance of getting confused. There’s even more features which you can read on their website.

The bundle of the textbook and the software is $135 plus tax (somewhere around $150 total) at the bookstore, and I found a used version of the textbook on Amazon for $85. I then searched Craig’s List and found a used book for $50. I e-mailed the person, and negotiated a purchase via Paypal since I don’t have time to go south to Auburn. We shared the cost of shipping so I payed $52.50. Score! I then called the Palo Alto customer service line and asked if I could purchase a discounted version of the book. They had me verify that I was a student with an e-mail address from my go.shoreline.edu account, and I downloaded the copy for $49.95, tax & shipping free!

My total was just over $100, so I saved a lot of money. Bought new and separate, I would have payed 3 times as much. Keep in mind that I’m a student so I got a student discount. There may be other discounts available on the Palo Alto website. I received the book yesterday, a very fast delivery!

Wrapping up the quarter

I’m so glad for this over to be done. This short break will be well deserved. I have enrolled for Spring quarter which begins March 28th, but I am not sure if that was a good idea. Sallie Mae doesn’t offer student loans for Shoreline Community College. I saw North Seattle Community College on Sallie’s supported school list, but had already enrolled for Shoreline for Spring quarter. I also noticed that North Seattle has a wider range of Accounting classes, as well as an entire program for Nanotechnology. If I don’t transfer Summer Quarter, I will certainly do so after I get my degree in International Business. I wish I had more time so I could take several degree programs at once.