Have you heard of Kiva.org? If not, you’ve been living under a rock. Kiva allows anyone to make a 0 interest loan to entrepreneurs and small business owners in developing countries. The cool thing is that Kiva is a non-profit and isn’t making a buck off your direct loans.
It is my belief that capitalism and entrepreneurship elevate society and raise the standard of living for everyone, at least on some level. I also have an internal struggle with the aid that our government doles out overseas every year. On one hand I see past our borders and realize it’s an issue of an obligation to humanity to help your fellow man but at the same time there are so many problems within the United States that it pains me to see people in our communities getting overlooked for foreigners.
Naturally this shows why I love Kiva so much. It allows people to lend money, not even truly donate because you’ll get it back, and at the same time help solve a problem–not just add fuel to a fire that will continue to rage until something changes (aid without accountability). I realize that Kiva loans are probably just a few hours worth of aid compared to what the United States gives on an annual basis but I think it’s a great model that could someday be rolled out on a much larger scale.
You might be wondering why the heck I’m trying to highlight Kiva when I haven’t talked about anything like this before on my blog. Next week I’ll be attending the infamous Pubcon Internet Marketing Convention in fabulous Las Vegas. One of the attendees, a man by the name of dk, is throwing a cool bash and as part of the attendence requirement he asked everyone to highlight a charity or non-profit that they respected. He worked a deal to do this as opposed to charge people for the party–pretty awesome in my opinion. A few hundred people will be attending this even and we’ll all be highlighting great causes on our websites. Cheers to helping!
I have a new addiction. It’s name is Mixergy.
The site is a collection of interviews by an extremely successful entrepreneur named Andrew Warner (”Hey everybody, this is Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com where ambitious upstarts mix!”). He sold a web company a few years back and now spends his time studying what other internet entrepreneurs have done to build great companies–the best part is he puts it all (I think) on the net for everyone to benefit!
It’s an awesome resource and I’d highly recommend checking it out now. Now I’m just hoping he lands Elon Musk soon, that dude is fascinating.
My birthday in 2011 that is. Check out Tesla’s new Model S. It’s super slick. Some stats:
-300 mile range
-45 min charge
-0-60 in a tad over 5 seconds
Those numbers are sick. Best part is, it’s only about $50k. I know that’s not cheap but considering the fact that the Roadster was $110k, this is a steal. I’ll wait for the next model, hopefully it’s cut in half one more time.
Vids on techcrunch.
Mark Cuban on Success and Motivation. This post is really old but super inspiring.
I’m about 300 pages into the massive book about the life of Warren Buffett, The Snowball. This book is a million times better than of the other Buffett books I’ve read because he handpicked the author and gave her candid accounts of his personal life and biz deals.
If you’re entrepreneurially inclined, this book is a most read. In my opinion, the most important lessons are specialization and leverage. These two facts are the basis of Buffett’s wealth, the leverage he gained from managing others’ money and his intense specialization in security selection and leaving operations to managers more skilled than he.
I also love Buffett’s views on diversification–put your eggs all in one basket and do absolutely everything in the world to protect those eggs.
This isn’t much of a review but this book is a must read. Buy it, read it, then go to Berk’s website and read a few of his annual reports. It may all sound stale but it’s seriously inspiring (or I’m just weird).
These posts get me seriously hot and bothered. I decided that the best way to kick off my personal blog would be to give you a little idea about who I am and what I think. (Ya, I’m using “you” in my writing, whatcha goin’ do ’bout it?) I’m laying out a little smörgåsbord of my favorite inspirational blog posts. Don’t let that scare you! Trust me, these are strictly business. No fluffy, follow your heart, just dream it and you can do it, BS posts. I’m a fan of no nonsense, legit info. So if that’s your cup of tea, sip away.
Sleepy Tuesday morning? Get your blood pumping with one of my favorite ever blog posts. Andy talks about how to build an affiliate site you can sell for a cool mil. The only thing I would say is this: don’t limit your ideas to affiliate sites. Although the model is attractive there’s probably some great niches that you can exploit by developing your own products.
I know what you’re thinking: being a millionaire is so 1970. I’m right there with ya. (Although I would settle [settle=kill] for a mil right now.) If you set your target a little higher, a bil, you’ll be fighting Provost in a race to be the first internet billionaire. This post get’s my blood pumping because Brian really looks at the big picture. Seos and Domainers are the new media mavericks. Who is going to be the Carnegie of the web? I think that still remains to be seen.
Neil Patel write on getting covered by the offline media. It’s one of those cliche simple but not easy kind of things. I like Neil’s ideas on leveraging your unique aspects (mine and Neil’s being age) to get publicity and position yourself as an authority. You might be saying, “I don’t want to be a consultant so what does offline press matter?” Put yourself out there like Neil and surely you’ll be bombarded with opportunities and connections stretching far beyond the typical consulting gig. Someday you might need investors or partners on your big projects and a fat profile surely won’t hurt the cause.
That’s enough to give you an idea about who I am and where I’m at online. Just to clear this up from the start–I’m not linking to the big names because I want to be one or because I feel the need to suck up to them. There’s a reason these people are the A-list (ya, it exists) and it’s because they get it. I don’t mind reading about people making a few grand a month blogging with payperpost or similar methods, but my goal is a business, a company, something that can grow, scale, and evolve. These guys see where the internet can take them and hopefully I can figure things out and get myself there as well.
