Sponsored Post : Hotel Reservations

The best part about being on a job is the number of vacations you get. The number varies from country to country and people react differently to them in different places. Like in Japan, people don't like taking them even in they are available, and in countries like mine, people would do anything to take a couple of days off at any time of the year.

So if you are one of those who enjoyed their vacations, and now you are deciding where to head out for your vacations, the I know the perfect place for you. Before you decide just where to go, take a few deep breaths, and move over to Hotel Reservations.

Among the huge number of sites on the internet where you can search for places to book your journey, this one has probably the largest collection of Hotels, Motels and resorts in the big bad internet.

Not being content with only the largest collection of Motels, these guys have also worked hard so that you can the best rates possible. After all, all that matters is how much money can they help you save. So if you are the Hotel Discounts freak, then you're in for a party, because these guys not only offer the best rates available in the market, they also give you a bunch of discounts on most of these cool places.

The choice of places is not limited to any one country, you can find the cheapest Hotels, Motels and offers for places across the world. So for example if youre heading out for Thailand or Singapore or China or Manila, this is just the place to find whatever you need.

Coupled with the option to get tickets, and car rentals as well, makes then one of the best available resources on the internet to plan your vacations. So if you are planning, just run, before you know all the offers run out.

Silicon Valley and Entrepreneurship

VC's and Entrepreneurs talk about The unique Silicon Valley's "Genome":
- Why in America and not in Europe & Japan?
- Europe - different mentality
- Europe - Germany and tax laws
- The Japan "Sony" tale - great example of Japan's different work culture

Participants: Jonathan Medved (Israel Seed Partners, Vringo), Joe Schoendorf (Accel Partners), Mary Alexander (Quova), Daniel Gatti (Big Bangwidth), Kim Odhner (Orient Networks)

Bug : The movie

This is a sponsored post.



The bug movie is coming. There are these two terrific posters which have the been released. It took me quite some time to find out what this one really meant. I always thought it was a bug, everyday when I saw this poster from the bus stop. But it took sometime to figure out that there is Ashley Judd inside the bug. I don't know why, but it looks scary. After all, it is from the director of the The Exorcist. The tag line is scary itself, first they find the drone, then they find the queen. And it seems to scare the shit out of me.


After having escaped her abusive ex-husband, Ashley Judd, a waitress moves into a run down motel and her friend introduces her to a war veteran, who is a paranoid drifter, and they start a tentative romance. But things are not always as they look. She starts getting nightmares, as the bugs start to approach.


And the posters seem to accentuate that effect. The picture of Ashley Judd staring out of the poster haunts the living hell out of everybody who looks at it. I guess she is the queen, but I don't really know what the bugs would go ahead and do to her. I guess I will have to watch the movie to find out.

Innovation

Randy Komisar on iinnovate part 2: Teaching Entrepreneurship

Motivational Software

So you've always wanted to achieve that goal, but somehow there were always so and so problem which always came in your way. Was it family or health or education? Every time when you were looking to open your wings and fly a little you were brought down by the realities of life, and you keep wondering how did they ever do it.

You won't ever have to do that again, because of this magical piece of software, which tells you how to change your habits, and achieve any goal that you really, desperately want to achieve. This motivation software helps quit smoking, it also helps you reduce stress, get rid of any addition and do anything you want to. It has almost changed my life.

And the best part is that it's FREE. You can donwload your copy of this motivation software for absolutely no cost. So go ahead and try it out.

Is it for you?

Entrepreneurship - Is it for you?

Sponsored Post : CRM Software Evolved

This is a sponsored post.

In the olden times, inventions were hard to come by and utilizing new ones for any practical use was difficult. But with time, and especially the coming of computers, making newer inventions and monetizing it has become so easy.

This is just the case about the crm I'm going to tell you about. Ever since the idea of crm's evolved, they have been slow and sluggish, take an infinite amount of time to start, and employees need to be taught how to use it. These are not just the entry barriers to using a crm, the high cost and no modularity makes it extremely difficult for companies to use it.

This is why AIMPromote, the latest crm on the block, is a market leader in it's own field. This software is not only easy to operate, which means that your employees spend less time learning the software, and more time on what they really need to be doing. Besides this software is completely modular, so you take only that what you need. You don't buy the factory if you want a car.

Finally, you would be surprised to hear, that it takes just two to three days to be up and running on your machine. Can you believe that.

So if your company is looking out for a crm solution, this is exactly what you need. Just give them a call, and they'll tell you how to go ahead.

Guy Kawasaki on Entrepreneurship

Guy Kawasaki talks about entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley. Taken from the forthcoming independent documentary: In Search of the Valley.

Sponsored Post : Coupon Chief

This is a sponsored post.

The internet has revolutionized shopping. Now the internet probably has more shops than those in the real world. Maybe if we had chosen to take the red pill, we would have known more about why this is happening, but well we are the mortal few, and we never got the chance to find out.

Anyways, here is this new service called CouponChief.com, here you can find all kinds of different coupons you can use for shopping at different places. Now why would you go to a site like that. Simple, because in some strange way, this site gets you so many refunds at so many places, that sooner or later you start loving them for saving you so much money.

For example the one place that I'm always regular at is Office Depot Coupons. A lot of stuff in my office has been bought from coupons that I bought from CouponChief.com. In all of this, there is just one trick that you need to remember. When purchasing from a coupons shop, you need to remember that you are going to use them only if you are getting a phenomenal amount of saving out the deal. If your coupons don't offer great reduction in price, for the same value, they are not really worth keeping.

So that's it, go over to Coupon Chief and pick up your coupons, for a hassle free shopping experience.

Business Plans 101

Brown University Entrepreneurship Program 2004 - Business Plans 101

Sponsored Post : Making Hotel Reservations

This is a sponsored Post.

Whenever you plan to go out, the first things that come to mind are where to get the plane tickets and your hotel booking from.

In the earlier days it was almost impossible to get air tickets, simply because they were way too costly. And advance bookings could not be made because it was impossible to let them know before hand when you would be coming. So the problem continued for centuries and years before the last century, when thing started changing rapidly.

In the last century, it was just a matter of picking up the phone and calling up the hotels and making your bookings. Now another problem which still remained was the information about the different hotes which are available. It wasn't possible to find out all the possible hotels where you could get a place. And hence you neeeded to know exactly where you planned to be going.

But this century is different and we know it. It is because of this thing called the internet and a website called Hotel reservations.

Now finding Cheap Hotels is as easy as going online and searching for different hotels which are available and booking them. All of this without knowing before hand which hotels were available. So now you can plan successfully as soon as you start off for your vacation.

There are some other reasons why Internet booking have proved to be so hot. Other than removing distances between the advertisers and the consumers, the internet has also greatly reduced the costs involved with pre booking of tickets and paying for them. This coupled with easier transportation is all parts of the world, makes it a lot more for us to go out to new exotic places that it was possible 50 years back.

So if you are looking for a fun filled holiday for you and your family, head over to HOliday Reservations and make your bookings in advance so that you don't have to waste one minute of you vacationing time, worrying about where to stay, or if you paid the right price.

Technology Management Program

Technology Management Program: Democracy & Entrepreneurship

Sponsored Post : DIY

The most fun in life comes from things you can do with your own hands. The moment you stop using your own hands, you start losing interest in it. This is simple human psychology and you don't have to be a genius to know that. This is why it is important to keep learning and finding out about how to DIY.

One thing you should try building, if you think that things are going well in your life, is a conservatory. So now what is a conservatory? A conservatory is more than just a green house. This is the place where we get to hang out with out plants.

Like all big things you need to plan well. You need to know how much space can you give it. Then you need a transparent or translucent roof. Basically, you can choose to make the conservatory yourself, or have another company supply it to you. If you're making it yourself then it's cool, but if you're getting somebody else to make it for you, don't be fooled that its going to be cheap, or the cheapest in the market. It is bound to drill a hole in your pocket.

There are other things to consider as well. Should the roof be clear or made up of translucent materials. Because it can get really hot in the summers, and you need to make sure you've covered for them.

On the whole just be sure that you're ready to give it a month, and depending on how deep your pockets run, how much you will be able to spend on it. And you can get that cool conservatory in your house, and keep playing with all the brilliant ideas that you get there.

Social Entrepreneurship Award

International Forum Social Entrepreneurship Award: Honoring Muhammad Yunus

London

200 years back, London was the most advanced city on the face of this earth. People from all across Europe moved to and from London. Even in those days, most of the travelers found London quite costly to stay in, and since those days finding cheap hotels in London has been a difficult task.

Come the 21st century, the internet has changed the world many times over. If now you decide to go to London and find yourself a cheap hotel in london, it is as easy as going online and searching on the internet to find a couple of places which suit your needs. So that the day you land in London, you don't have to go looking. You can just go and sit in the your room which has already been confirmed.

But finding a hotel which suits your needs is not as simple as you would expect. As expected, a number of hoteliers lie about their services. So you can't always find an aunt or a friend who has stayed in the hotel before. So to find out if it was any good, you need user reviews on the website. Because very simply there has to be somebody's aunt of friend, who has stayed there. This is the golden rule of finding cheap hotels London, that you don't book a place until and unless you get a review from somebody neutral.

Bill Drayton speaks at Google

"Social Entrepreneurship" - Ashoka's Bill Drayton speaks at Google

Sponsored Post : PPP Direct

This is a sponsored post.

Payperpost has always been one of my favourites. With their ground breaking approach they were the first ones to enter into this field and even today are probably the best people which let you make lots and lots of money via your blog.

So today is another good day, becuase Pay Per Post has launched a new service called PPP Direct. In this service, advertisers can directly contact individual blogs and ask them to advertise. This reduces the crap from the system. As the advertisers pay less money overall and more money to a particular blog.

This also helps in blog marketing, as advertisers get to know particular blogs which are up at PPP.

Another interesting thing is that, keeping up with the PPP tradition, they only charge 10% as commision as opposed to other networks which can take away a significant amount of the advertising fee.

This also means that you can make available your email address for the advertisers, because now you know exactly who you will be interacting with. Making life a lot easier for both bloggers and advertisers, who have always been concerned with online security.

And not just this, there are a lot of other features which have been planned and are coming out. You can read more about them here.

Entreing into Entrepreneurship

Here are some interesting ideas about how to plunge into entrpreneurship. Link

Sponsored Post : AIM Promote

This is a sponsored post.

AIMPRomote is a new CRM software which gets rid of the confusions and complexity usually found in CRM softwares.

With this revolutionary software, you quickly see the real world benefit and stay away from the steep learning curve. Besides it gives you the option to get only those features which you really need. So, it takes about a couple of days to have this software up and running, giving your team time to concentrate of sales and not the software.

AimPromote offers sales force automation, customer relationship management, campaign tracking, and lead management software all of which will be installed based on your business requirement.

You can sign up for a free 14-day trial here and gain that vital edge over others.

Entrepreneurship in Qatar

Tepper School of Science and Technology has started a training course in Qatar for entrepreneurs. The program aims to convert research and education into business success.

The Executive Entrepreneurship Certificate Program is run by Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business and its Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship. The center, recognized as one of the best in the world, has taught thousands of people to create new businesses, including the founder of iGate Corporation, a global IT company with nearly $400 million market capitalization. For the first time, the program is available to executives in the Middle East.

“Entrepreneurial spirit and know-how are essential for building a dynamic knowledge economy,” said Eulian Roberts, QSTP’s chief executive. “We have identified one of the best entrepreneurship programs from around the world to establish its activities in Doha. Carnegie Mellon’s course provides exactly the right set of skills and will be tailored to the unique Middle Eastern business environment. We warmly encourage individuals and executives in Qatar and around the region to come and share the passion of creating new technology business.”

Read the whole article here.

Sponsored Post : My Solitaire

This is a sponsored post.

Even important occasion needs to be marked. And what better way to do it that by presenting a solitaire.

The biggest problem with buying a piece of jewelery is that there is not guarantee that it would not turn out to be a fake. So it makes sense if you are able to buy quality stuff from shops which you are sure will deliver only the best quality of stuff to you. Here is why, a well recognized, independent online supplier. This is where mysolitaire comes in.

Here is one place where you can get Black Diamond Jewelry at affordable prices. You can also design your own Black Diamond Rings or your own Black Diamond Earrings . Also, they offer diamonds at dealer prices and give you a guarantee of the purity of the diamond and the ring. Other than the pre-certified engagement rings, you can also get self-designed diamond rings, which you can design yourself. You can also find Black Diamond Studs and Black Diamond Pendants there because in just some time, Black Diamonds have just become really hot. Starting from $50 to beyond, you can buy Black Jwellery cheaper than ever before.

So fall prey to the beauty of the black diamonds, and purchase your first pendant or ring here, and we'll deliver it to you free of cost.

Bankrupt Entrepreneurs

Bob Lawless talks about Entrepreneurs amongst the Bankrupt

One concept of entrepreneurial studies might be that it defines a group of scholars with cross-disciplinary interests in what might loosely be called "emerging businesses." Under this concept, entrepreneurial studies is a label that helps a set of scholars identify papers, conferences, and other opportunities for scholarly exchange. Thus, entrepreneurial studies can be seen as a flag around which a group of scholars have rallied. This loose social organization facilitates the accumulation of knowledge because these scholars otherwise would have stayed within their own intellectual silos, and the information that each knew would not have been shared with the larger scholarly community. That is a useful role for entrepreneurial studies.

Read the whole article here.

Exotic Locations

Johannesburg, also knows as eGoli is the largest city in South Africa. The city with a large gold and diamond trade, and the busiest airport in the continent, is next on my list of places to visit. All international travellers to Africa, happen to travel to Johannesburg weather they like it or not. Recent additions include history museums, such as the Apartheid Museum and the Hector Pieterson Museum. An amusement park called Gold Reef City. The Johannesburg Zoo and a few art museums like the Johannesburg Art Gallery. The Market Theatre complex, the Mandela Museum, The Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site, The Sterkfontein fossil site are just a few of the attractions. You need to get your flights to Johannesburg, if you want to check all of that out for yourself.

Then there is Brazil. The place where City of God was shot. The place of beautiful women and more sandy beaches. You can book your flight to Brazil here. Also if you're looking at Asia, you can book flights to Singapore.

Singapore might be called the best place to do business, it is also one of the most exotic locations you might travel to. It is also a major shipping hub. So if you're interested in any of those just run, and get your tickets today.

Moonlighting

If you ever had the chance to use your employers's resources to help your own new startup, you were trying your hand at Moonlighting.

GigaOm's Found+Read, an entrepreneurship blog with a funny name, talks about how things can get a little messed up if your employer tries to take you to court for violating it's argreement.

Link

Warm Places to Go to.

If you haven't been to Australia, you can't call yourself a traveller. And if you haven't, go book your flight to Australia now because the hottest place on earth is waiting for you. Starting from the golden sandy beaches, throughout the continent, to the laid-back outback, there is more than enough for everybody in Australia. For the party animals there is the GoldCoast, which is a party 24x7x365, though take care if you go there. Other than that there is Sydney, and Melbourne and Adelaide, and about seven more cities for you to freak out in. The beaches are absolutely fabulous, starting with the bondi beach in Sydney to the infinite ones across the continent. For the sports freak, there is the Australian Open in Tennis, and the Australian F1 and the Australian Cricket, and Football, and many many others.

If you are looking for sunny beaches and the like, you can also just book flights to Florida. No matter when you go there, florida has enough to keep you entertained. Finally, another great place to be, if looking for warm climates is right in the middle of spain, europe. You can find flights to Tenerife here. Just ask google what all you can do there, and you'd be surprised that there is so much to do and you're still waiting.

Religion and Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur.com brings to light a survey, which is being conducted right now about how and why religion is an important or not-so important part of business. In India it is definitely one of the more important ones.

You can take part in the survey here.

Religion isn't going anywhere from this world. In the 21st century, no matter how distant and far away it seems, it is still quite amongst us.

Travelling to the east

If you are a travelling freak, you can never really forget Japan. The icon of the east, the land of the rising sun, the home of martial arts. Japan reminds us of everything non-American. And if you like watching movies, there are some people from Japan, who you can never forget. One such example is Akira Kurisawa, the legendry movie director, who became a pioneer of Japanese and American films, was a part and parcel of Japan. Besides Japan is about fast trains and beautiful women. The beauty of it all it that is gels so well together, that once you get there, it's really difficult to come out. Even though it seems far, flights to Japan can be quite cheap.

Then there is also Malaysia. Where people play badminton faster than you can blink your eye. There are dragons on the streets, and carnivals around the year. Please book your flights to Malaysia here.

Finally, there is also Bangkok. The largest city and the capital of Thailand. Other than beautiful women there are absolutely fabulous beaches, which extend from one end of the city to the other. It is also a major port on the sea route to Australia, and everything that goes down under does pass through here. So if you are thinking of heading there, this is where you can get your flights to Bangkok.

Price Banson Symposium for Entrepreneurship

Participants in the Price-Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators (SEE) program will be exploring the entrepreneurial process and the 'art and craft' of teaching and learning entrepreneurship. The program provides an introduction to case-method teaching and live, venture-based teaching methodologies.

The 68 attendees, from 33 institutions in countries around the world including the Pacific Rim, Europe, and Latin America, will be encouraged to identify, plan, and personalize their own entry (or reentry) strategy into academia, and to improve as teachers, entrepreneurs, learners, researchers, and colleagues.

Session topics will include New Venture Creation, Entrepreneurship Curriculum Design, The Entrepreneurial Mind in Action, The Quest for Master Teaching, Alternative Pedagogies, Challenges in the “Clashroom,” and Idea Lab.

Link

Canada and US

The only one thing that Canada and the US share is the border line. Otherwise it's almost like two different worlds. If you want to be rich and famous, go to USA, if you want to enjoy go to Canada.

I'm the kinds who love to enjoy, so of course, I'm planning to be off to Canada. Other than the fact that I have a cousin there, I know for sure that the place would really be amazing. At least once, in this lifetime, or the next, I want to go down to Canada, and give them a visit. Being one of the coolest places on earth, it also has it's share of don't eat this crap. But food is good, and the people better. And if like me you're in love with the place, you can get flights to Canada here.

Now if you get bored of Canada, and if you bought my shit about people being nice and all, that is all bull. People are the same everywhere. But anyways, if you're not the one meant to be going to Canada, you can get your flights to USA here, or flights to Caribbean here. If you get to the USA, enjoy the night life, and if you hit the carribbean, enjoy the cricket.

Infosys funds social entrepreneurs

Himanshu quotes that Infosys is all set to start supporting social entrepreneurs from now on.

The initiative, called InfYi will function as the corporate chapter of the Young India initiative started by the Confederation of Indian Industry. Reflecting that charter, all its members below the age of 35 will be Infoscions.

The stress won't be on funding but to provide guidance to the Entrepreneurs. Based on the inputs that a project or idea needs, a senior council member will contribute to it. The projects could be in youth affairs, education, healthcare, economy or any other socially-relevant area. So far, InfYi has received 13 project ideas. Three of these will be shortlisted taken from concept to execution. They will be put through the paces by a team which has worked out how to capitalise on opportunities and survive downturns.

. I wonder if there are any social entrepreneurs who are looking out for it.

Sponsored Post : Credit Cards

This is a sponsored Post :

Credit cards have been making our lives simple for so many years. Even though I cannot say that I have had the best of experiences with it, I have in a way become addicted to Credit Cards. It's like you can't live with it, nor can you live without it.

All of us know about it, but just sometimes, when the cash is low, we tend to ignore the fact that we need to be paying the credit card monthly. This is what happens if you don't. And that's not it. Online security is becoming so much of an issue. Though if you remember general priciples it's not that difficult.

For some credit cards are an option, for me it's a way of life.

Wise words on deals

Here are some wise words on why don't deals get done?

Proof of concept used to be "I turn on the lightswitch, and the light goes on", post dot.com bubble, proof of concept is now "I turn on the lightswitch, the light goes on, AND SOMEONE IS WILLING TO PAY ME TO READ UNDER IT."

Link

Born in the USA

There are some places which you won't remember after you've left them. And there are some which you just can't forget when you see them. New York is one of the latter. The most populous city in the United States of America, is quite what the media makes it seem to be. The first time I went there, I left back a piece of myself there. Whenever I get a chance to get there again, I'll be the first guy you see running towards the flight (btw you get tickets for your flights to New York here).

Places including the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Broadway theater productions, scores of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, Washington Square Park, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Bronx Zoo and New York Botanical Garden, luxury shopping along Fifth and Madison Avenues, and events such as the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, the Tribeca Film Festival, and free performances in Central Park at Summerstage make it the best place to take a New York Weekend Break.

There are a few other places in the US which are as hot as New York. Though one which comes to mind instantly is Orlando. You can catch a cheap flight to orlando here. In case you don't know, it is the home of artists including Anberlin, Britney Spears, Mandy Moore, NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, as well as Sam Rivers, Creed, Trivium, From First to Last, Matchbox Twenty, Seven Mary Three, There For Tomorrow, Mark Fenlon, DJ Icey, DJ KJ of K5, DJ Baby Anne, DJ Jimmy Joslin and DJ Scotty B. Sister Hazel, For Squirrels and Less Than Jake are from nearby Gainesville, as is superstar Tom Petty.

Silicon Valley Techcrunched

Andrew Fife of Entrepreneurship Blog, wonders why Techcrunch is against the very force which made it so famous - The Silicon Valley. He says

it does seem to me that TechCrunch is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Silicon Valley startup hype cycle. More venture money means two trends that TechCrunch would seem to benefit from: 1. More startups get funded, which generate more pageviews for TechCrunch as they write about new products resulting from the funding 2. Larger marketing budgets to fund advertising and conferences. Valuation aside, I can't think of a company that fundamentally relies on the swelling interest in web 2.0 more than TechCrunch.

While all that might be true, I think Techcrunch still has the freedom to slam the Silicon Valley for what it has become. Those are the signs of greatness, which is why it is so loved.

Dubai and Abudhabi

I just came to know yesterday that one of my friends has got admitted to the prestigious SP Jain Institute of Management, in Dubai. It took him three years in Infosys, and a score of 680 in the GMAT to be able to make it there. Though it wasn't exactly the place that he'd been dying to go to.

His tryst with MBA started way back in college, when he appeared for CAT. Then again and then again, but it isn't really to crack it. Anyways, last year he went onsite to the US and was going to stay there for the next three years. But he decided to quit that offer and complete his MBA first. So he's back here in Pune, for the last few days before he leaves for Dubai. (This is where he is getting his flight to Dubai from).

But what I'm interested in, is not his studies, but what I'll do when I go there. Dubai Holidays are going to be cool. You can go there anytime, with the A1 Grand Prix, Dubai Festival City, Dubai Financial Market, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai Holding, Dubai police, Dubai Sevens, Dubai Tennis Championships, Dubai World Cup, Falcon City of Wonders, List of schools in the United Arab Emirates, 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens, to be held in Dubai, there is way too much to see. Ofcourse there is even AbuDhabi. Flights to Abu dhabi can be found here, where all the cute kittens keep going. I'm sure I'll see a lot of them there.

Blue King Brown

Shot in just one day with a tiny budget of $200, "water" is the debut clip for Blue King Brown.

Travelling to the Mediterranean

I keep talking about places I would like to visit is the Mediterranean. Ofcourse when you start talking about it, the first place that comes to mind is Cyprus.

Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean and definitely the most popular tourist location in the area. Being one of the oldest places in the world, it is said that hunters-gatherers were active on the island from 10,000 BC. A flight to Cyprus is easy to get. This is also the place where the goddess of love - Aphrodite - was born. The island has two main languages. In the north it is Turkish and in the south is Greek, though English is widely understood. Here are a few places you have to check out once you go there, Paphos Harbour and Castle, House of Hadigeorgakis Kornesios, Nicosia 'within the walls', Kourion/Kolossi Castle, Larnaca Salt Lake & Hala Sultan Tekke, Agia Napa and Protaras, Cedar Valley, Panayia tou Araka, Choirokitia, Lefkara and The Paphos mosaics. So pack your bags and move on for the Cyprus holidays

The second place worth checking out in the Mediterranean is Malta. If you are thinking about your Malta holidays, this is what you should know. It lies south of Sicily and the main languages there are Maltese and English. Of course you remember about the Maltese Faction, which is the first thing which comes to mind when you think about Malta. This place is home to some of the oldest freestanding structures in the world. Eg, the megalithic temples on the islands is il-Ġgantija, in Għawdex on Gozo, dating back to before 3500 BC.

#12 podcast from Pandora

The twelfth pandora podcast is up.

It is about what you do with a sung track after you have recorded it.

Go here to listen to it.

Sponsored Post : Payperpost

This is a sponsored post.

I started blogging about three years back. In all these three years, I never thought that I should try and start making money off the blog.

In the starting, there were not too many ways you could do this. Adsense was always there, but when you blog does not get any traffic, it is impossible to earn the first 100 dollars via adsense. The same problem exists amongst all other advertising networks.

So when I heard about PayPerPost for the first time, a few weeks back, I was elated. This was just what I was looking for. This is the easiest way to bloggers to use their skills at blogging and make some money by blog reviews. Of course if your blog isn't one of the very good ones, there is no way you are going to make much money off it.

This is why I like PPP the most. It ensures that you keep your blog up to decent standards, but if people won't come there, advertisers won't pay. And you can also start making money with it, as long as you don't get greedy.

BlogCamp Pune

What? Why? When?

learn about some of it here.

13 year old CEO

Here is an interesting anecdote on Zoli's Blog.

Kaval Kaur, co-Founder of Virsa, a company acquired by enterprise software giant SAP is up on stage. She is a dynamic speaker, and a perfect inspiration for entrepreneurs or entrepreneur-wannabes in the crowd.

But ... what's happening? She is interrupted by a kid with a microphone in hand.

"Hi - are you looking for your parents?

No. I'm looking for funding."

The "kid" turns out to be Anshul Samar, 13-year old CEO of Elementeo, a battle-game of .. chemical elements. (Gee, I barely knew what chemistry was at his age). Anshul looks like a 13-year old, but speaks like an adult. He knows what he wants: the goal is to achieve $1M in revenue by the time he finishes high-school, which is next year.

If you're travelling, read this

This is why we choose to work for the whole year.

Vacations are what makes it worthwhile. One month off the job makes it possible to survive the eleven months of work. I wonder what would happen if that was taken away. I have heard that in Japan it is compulsory to take all of your leaves. Because they say the people there have a tendency to stop taking vacation because they say that the work gets affected. I can't believe that this kind of people still exist in the world.

Anyways, if you ask me, there are two places I really want to go to: Singapore and Thailand. Singapore, because it is one of the coolest places in the world. It looks modern but at the same time it is undeniably Asian. The climate is amazing and there are a shitload of places to go to. If you like it as much as I do, you can get your flights to Singapore here.

The second place is Thailand. And for just one reason, Bangkok is there :D. By the way, you can't flights to Thailand and the Bangkok flight. The last time I planned to go there was last new years. Luckily for me, I couldn't make it, because I fell short of money. And guess what happened. There was a coup. Bangkok got bombed. But my friends who were there, told me that it wasn't all that bad. So i've been saving up again for quite some time now. And this time it looks like i'm all set to go.

Sponsored Post : Payday Loans

This is a sponsored post :

All of us know the feeling.

The pay day is oh so close but you need the money now, not one week later. One week later it would be all gone, it is now or never. And then you need to call up your friend, or your family and explain how much you need, and when will you return it. And you get those glances, even though you're on a full time job.

Today I'm talking about a wonderful idea, which is going to change your life. Especially your life, in the few days before you get your pay. Payday Loan is there to give you personal cash advance online. It is the fastest, safest, and the easiest way to get the cash advance. With this you manage to stay clear of the expensive bounced checks and late payment penalty on your credit cards.

Applying for a payday loan is easy, just fill up the form and a representative will contact you within a few MINUTES to confirm your contact details etc, and overnight you get the money in your back. No faxing papers, no endless trips to get the loan approved. And when the due date comes, the loan amount and a small fee would be automatically deducted from your account. So you dont have to do anything.

Take a step back if you want to jump

Greg writes a beautiful post about why it is important to take a step back if you wish to jump. He refers to Christine Kane's interview, who gives us a few insights.

Not only does Christines' music reveal wisdom each answer to Ed's questions reveal a conscious, authentic lady who gets it. Her answers really do speak to the need of every entrepreneur to occasionally step back to gain perspective and look after themselves so they can be of service to others. Check out the interview on Ed's blog and make sure to check out Christine Kane. Here is a video of Christine performing one of her popular songs.

Link

Sequoia sells stake in FirstSource

IndiaPrWire reports that Sequoia Capital has today announced that it has sold a 4.45% stake in Firstsource Solutions to SUN Group for a total sum of $42 million. Post the sale, Sequoia Capital India will continue to own around a 5% stake in FirstSource.

Speaking on the deal, KP Balaraj, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India said, “We are very positive about Firstsource Solutions, which is one of India’s top BPO companies and is currently the largest publicly traded BPO company with a current market cap of over $1 Billion. The company is led by a world class management team and Board, and we are excited to remain a shareholder and investor here. We are also very excited that Sequoia India was an early investor in India`s first large cap BPO public company .”

eClips : The biggest resource of entrepreneurial articles

Here is the biggest resource of clips about entrepreneurship, including interviews with great entrepreneurs of all time. You can read more about it here.

Students and professionals interested in social responsibility often argue that business is only about making a profit and "entrepreneurship" is a dirty word. eClips brings wisdom from Bena Burda, CEO of Maggie’s Organics who feels commerce and trade can be viable solutions and states,

Business absolutely is a change agent.

Sponsored Post : Pingo Calling Cards

This is a sponsored post.

Tired of looking through hundreds of calling cards to find out which one of them turns out to be the cheapest. Well now you can relax, because the cheapest card that you would ever find is already here. Pingo, the prepaid calling card provider started by iBasis, a public company (NASDAQ: IBAS), it intends to provide you with a cheap alternative and saving a lot of your time.



More so if you use your mobile to call up, then using Pingo allows you to save as much as 90% on international calls, if you use Pingo. They use a trademarked PIN-less dialling, so that you don't have to remember the passwords. And you also get $5 just for singing up. It is also the lowest India prepaid calling card rate(India = 7.3 cents)

Other than that there are free merchant giveaways, free fathers day calls, and an affiliate program too.

Guy Kawasaki starts up company in $12k

Andrew Fife links to a WSJ article, which talks about how Guy Kawasaki, of Garage Venture, started his new company truemors on just $12k and free softwares. The programming was done by a company with cool website called Electric Pulp.

It is said that it took three months to complete creating the product.

Entrepreneurship Blog

Sponsored Post : Lowest unique bids win

This is a sponsored post.



So you are tired of the regular bidding sites, where the prices keep going up and up, and you end of paying more than the value of what you were bidding for. If that is the case you might really like this great new service which is available in the market, which allows you to make bids for objects.

But the best part is that it's not the highest bid that gets it, it's the lowest bid that wins. For example, if you are bidding for this BMW 3 series, if two people bid $30,000 and one guy bids $40,000, and you bid $30,0001 for the same, then you win the bid. Sounds interesting?

If yes then you can log into Bid4Prizes.com and start bidding for the things that you really like. I'm still stuck on the BMW Series 3, just can't get my mind off it.

Enterpreneurship in Pakistan

Babar Bhatti talks about conferences for entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

I would like to share a new series of learning and networking opportunities for executives and entrepreneurs in Pakistan. In June, there are 2 seminars in Karachi, led by senior lecturers Ken Morse and William Aulet at MIT Entrepreneurship Center. First is “Pakistan CEO Summit” and the second is “Financing Your New Venture“. Organizers include OPEN, MDI, MIT Entrepreneurship Center and Computer Society of Pakistan.

I never thought much would be happening there, but it looks like there is.

Sponsored Post : 1800NoDrugs Helpline

This is a sponsored post.

If you've even had the experience of coming across somebody who is addicted, then you might have some idea about how difficult life can be for such a person. Even though so many rehab centres are available around the country, the problem seems to be deteriorating. One major reason for the same is that the treatment for drug rehab can be too expensive.

This is why a new service which has come up can be really useful. 1800-no-drugs helpline is not-for-profit free service which provides consultation about where and how to find the correct rehab center for you friends or family.

So if you are one of those who are looking for help, do get 1800-no-drugs helpline a call. You are sure to find help there.

Ads : Boy in Love

Inventors and Innovators

This is why entrepreneurs won't let innovation die.

If creativity is the seed that inspires entrepreneurship, innovation is the process of entrepreneurship. Enterpreneurers are often thought to be "inspired" people, and perhaps they are, but more important, they often recognize changes and opportunities that can result from a dynamic world. Innovation is an important factor of entrepreneurship for every leader. It is defined as the process of doing new things. Therefore, it is often the active translation of a creative idea into a new product, service, or technology. Drukers writes that "innovation…is the means by which the entrepreneur either creates new wealth-producing resources or endows existing resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth."

Read the whole article here.

Succeeding as an entrepreneur

Trevor Nel, of the social entrepreneur defines what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur.

* Do it if you have passion about the project. You will not succeed if your heart is not in the venture.
* Have clarity of purpose: define what success will look like and quantify your goals. Write a business plan for the new venture.
* Make sure you have "sufficient" resources to succeed: money, time, psychic energy. If you are already wiped out from your job, you will have a hard time finding the extra energy and passion you will need to make the venture successful.
* You must have personal and organizational commitment and courage to succeed Is your organization ready to take this on? Is everyone on board with the plan?
* Articulate your organization's core values: does this venture fit in with the list? If not, don't do it.
* Be focused on the customer.
* You must have a willingness to plan: do not hesitate to ask for help.
* Be #1 or #2 in the marketplace, or don't do it at all. Like General Electric, you should plan on being the top player in the marketplace of services for your venture, or you should not bother to do it.
* Build the right team to carry it out.

Check out the other links too (link)

Why developing nations need entrepreneurs

Emeka writes about the growing problems in developing countries and why all such countries need entrepreneurs. (link)

The problem is that we mistake that importance of technical ability, and vastly underestimate the importance of entrepreneurial ability. Our schools are organized to produce technicians in all fields, and from age 16 a student must narrow down their course of formal study (for life in most cases) to four subject areas and General Paper.
The truth is that educating another lawyer, doctor or accountant is unlikely to contribute much to our GDP. Narrow technical abilities are admirable, but nowhere near as vital to countries in which the large mass of people cannot afford to use them.
What most developing countries need are not more professionals with masters degrees in contract law, but more entrepreneurs who are willing to hire ever increasing numbers of ordinary people.

Link

If you think about India, all of this is true of all places except for Gujrat. For they say that in any other part of the country, if your son is useless, he starts a business, but in Gujrat it is the smarter breed of Gujjus who get into business. And who says they don't have anything to show for it.

Issues with starting up in developing countries

Atif comes out with a beautiful article about the problems of starting up in a developing country. He seems to be back after three years, but looks like he's still in touch ;).

Here are the main points that he mentions :
1. Political stability
2. Government Oversight
3. Financing

(Link)

Here in India, things are almost similar to the countries that he is discussing about ie Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh. Ofcourse when I compare, Political stablitily is still not that much of an issue. Military comes in once in thirty years, which gives you enough time to plan.

Government is a problem. It takes three weeks to register a company in the US. In India it takes well over a month, no matter what they say. Everything is supposed to be online now, but it still takes a lot of time. And the reasons are aplenty. From websites not handling the load to issues with getting registered at the government office. More so, since the government started taxing pass through income, it seems things might get a little more difficult. However, there are a few government initiatives coming up, like this, I am not sure I know too many people who rely on it.

Financing is also a problem. Starting up right after college is a complete no no because nobody would fund you to startup. Even after three or four years things are not as easy. Everybody looks for a team with a combined work ex of close to twenty-twenty five years, before they even think about giving you the money. Sadly, there is not much which can be done, and I hope things do improve as time progresses.

Factors affecting Entrepreneurs

Sparkii, a new blogger on entrepreneurship, writes about Culture Norms and Personality Traits Influence on Entrepreneurship.

He explains why the entrepreneurs feel more responsibility when the business fails

During the start up stages, founding members are usually more passionate as they were the ones who nurtured the firm to its present status and would remain so on all activities concerning the firm. They tend to worry about future prospects and have a high locus of control believing that their life’s event could be controlled (Ang and Hong, 2000). Thus, when failures occur it would attribute it to their own actions.

Then he comes on to why and what makes an entrepreneur.

Possession of personality characteristics alone does not imply that any individual has what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Motivation also is needed to drive an individual to have the entrepreneurial spirit. Therefore, there are two components to an entrepreneurial spirit – the ability or personality component as well as the motivational component. (Ang and Hong, 2000)

This is where it starts getting interesting. He explains why Confucianism is also partly responsible for the lesser number of entrepreneurs in Singapore. And then moves on to how entrepreneurs still manage to succeed against all odds.

An entrepreneur who holds a steadfast belief that has brought him success would likely to continue holding on to the same views to eternity, such persistence could be detriment to the future of the firm (Lok, 2007); even as entrepreneurship is about being perseverance. The problem then is of change and the management of the usual resistance to it.
But then when is it a good time to change and know that it is for the better? Perhaps a lot of it depends on intuition which draws it strength from experience and even the random generation element. In Hertzmark (2001) empirical study of commodity traders, it was observed that consistently a group of traders were able to obtain returns inspite the lack of abilities. The returns are devoid of logic and predictability.

An interesting read. (Link)

eBay Entrepreneurship Conference

Open your online wealth states on his blog that the Attendee registration is now open for eBay's 6th Annual community conference in Boston on June 14-16. (Link)

eBay Live! aims at helping users improve their entrepreneurial skills through classes, roundtables, and panels, the company said. Guest speakers will include personal finance guru Suze Orman, marketing expert Seth Godin, and John Gardner, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur's Soul, the company said.This year's theme is "The Power of All of Us."

So keep your bags packed, Boston, here we come.

Liberal Entrepreneurship

Planting Liberally, takes about Liberal Entrepreneurship in the latest post. Like most of the other articles on the site, this one too provides a lot of food for thought.

He defines it thus

"Liberal entrepreneurship" is a term I am ripping off of the better known "social entrepreneurship". As defined by Wikipedia, a social entrepreneur is "someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change." By contrast, a liberal entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a problem which faces the progressive movement and builds an organization to solve it.

And then he talks about some basic approaches to increasing the flow of money into the progressive movement, and defines what he means by the term 'Liberal Entrepreneurship'. Here are the main points about increasing the flow of money

1. Rely on Big Donors
2. Support Entrepreneurs
3. Going for small dollar fund raising

Do read the complete article here. (Link)

The importance of being a failure

In their latest post, Singapore Entrepreneus argues that failure is the stepping stone to success. This one advice just might be the most often quoted piece of literature on entrepreneurship, yet the most widely used.

The argument used is creative, he uses economics, aids and pollution to explain why people in Singapore are scared of failing.

I can say it's with all of the other countries too.

A must read (Link)

Entrepreneurs in Indian Engineering Colleges

Matt McGann from MIT writes about a few about his collegues in engineering colleges who are starting up. He referes to a company called 'Dropbox', which I can say I have heard about before too. (Link)

How long would it take before it starts happening in engineering colleges in India. Right now, all that you hear about is ragging (which I should say I'm not really against, if people stay in the correct state of mind, which they usually do).

From my batch in college, not more than 4 out of a 180 have started up. And this is after two and a half years. While we were in college there was no way we could even think about something like this. Maybe time has come for a change.

Spirituality in Western Entrepreneurship

Andy writes on his blog Public Policy News and Research about the demise and Reawakening of Spirituality in Western Entrepreneurship

Understanding spirituality may serve as a foundation for developing new approaches to managerial action, organizational learning, social change and leadership. This article explores this phenomenon by hermeneutically tracing the demise and reawakening of spiritual entrepreneurship in Western life over the past 200 years. Spiritual aspects of entrepreneurial organizations are also framed via the lens of critical management theory as reflected in literature spanning four social epochs: federalist reality, the Industrial Revolution, disciplinary society, and the post-industrial milieu. The resulting themes highlight the interconnectedness and reciprocal influences between social reality and spiritual leadership in Western entrepreneurial enterprises. Drawn from the author's doctoral research (Jue 2004), the article suggests a need for reintegrating spiritual leadership among post-modern organizations and entrepreneurial firms in the achievement of more sustainable futures.

Link

Farmers turn entrepreneurs

The Economic Times brings out an interesting article about farmers in Punjab turning entrepreneurs. The Punjabis have always been famous for having the business gene, and now we have even more examples.

An example is Jaswinder Singh Sangha — a potato grower from Jalandhar — who has become the authorised franchisee of the Subway outlet in the city. Another member of his extended family (also in the potato business) has recently set up a unit in Jalandhar which makes French fries and supplies it to several top food chains including McDonald’s.

Link

Entrepreneurs and Corporates

MindPetals brings out the song of entrepreneurship as against corporates. He writes

It’s fun. It can be scary. It’s stressful. It’s amazing. It’s all of these things and that’s why we love it. It’s our ever-changing and growing song and we sing it everyday of our lives.

Do check out the song at his website.

(Link)

Using Ajax : Downloading songs from Myspace

Here is one hell of a trick to flick songs off myspace, and guess what does it use, yes, Ajax. All you need to do is to copy and paste the the band's homepage url and paste it in the form on the page, and you're done.

Try it out here.(Link)

If anybody knows how this is done, do let me know.