Entrepreneurship – The Importance of Good Friends
Published March 5, 2012 | 
There will come a point in your life when you finally realize who really matters, who never really did, and who always will.
Connected with Upbeat Friends
Over the years, studies have shown that when you have someone who’s a friend in your immediate social circle that is always upbeat increases your own chances of happiness by 15% to 20%. Why is this? Well it seems upbeat people have the power to spread their positive energy both far and wide, in the same way a ripple spreads throughout a body of water. It shows that not only do immediate friends really matter, but friends of friends of friends, too, just like the ripples. So make plans to connect with your upbeat friends, and it could have far-reaching benefits for not only your mental well-being, but your business success as well.
Be real and stay connected with the people whose friendship you value and view as worth efforts to sustain long-term.
Be honest since a dishonest person has no chance at all of retaining true friends because it’s extremely difficult to rely on or trust any individual whose behavior is unsupportive, inconsistent or untrustworthy.
Be loyal and if one of your friends tell you something in confidence, strongly maintain that confidence and don’t talk about it to anyone else.
Be respectful because good friends respect one another and exhibit this quality by being both openly and mutually supportive.
To share exhibits selflessness, which is an important component of being a good friend.
Watch out for your friends and if you sense that one of your friends is getting into trouble over something which they have little or no control, such as taking drugs, being too reckless, help him or her to get away from the situation.
Pitch in for friends during times of crisis, especially if your friend really needs help, like when their dog runs away and they need help to find it, or they need a ride somewhere, or if they need someone just to be there.
Give thoughtful advice only when asked, but remember that it’s only advice and you shouldn’t insist they put your advice into action. You aren’t judging your friend, just simply advising them when they reach out for it.
Listen. Just listen to what is being said, understanding that you don’t have to agree. And remember that you can’t listen while talking, so stop and listen.
Step back and give your friends space and understand that just like when you need it, your friends want to be alone at times or even to hang out with other people.
Don’t be selfish. Grabbing, stealing, envying and/or begging are big don’ts in the rules of friendship.
Be forgiving when things go wrong in your friendship and remember to hate the action, not the person.
Always live by the golden rule and ALWAYS treat any friend as you would want to be treated.
Your real friendships will deepen over time and the more you are with your real friends, the more you accept one another for who you really are.
The Zen of Success – Enrich
Published July 11, 2010 | 
Naturally infused within our human DNA is an innate curiosity that keeps each one of us on a life long search, an important search for more meaning in our lives. The Successful choose to enrich other people’s lives, they add meaning to both their own life as well as the people whose lives they enrich.
The road to successful enrichment is much simpler then you might think including making commitments to build lifetime relationships that cross causes or callings, businesses, geographic and man-made boundaries, and events.
- One of the oldest known rules to mankind that is specific to enriching the lives of others is to care for the concerns of others as if they are your own concerns.
- One of the most lasting and effective ways to enrich the lives of others is to help directly expand their capacity to help themselves both give and get more from their own lives, the results of which can impact lives for generations.
- The Successful learn early on the great importance and value of both honest and candid communication when expressing thoughts and facts that they should hear rather than what the people want to hear.
- The Successful know to not only connect with, but connect those who will benefit and enrich each other’s lives in equal measure, which in turn builds extremely valuable lifetime relationships that continue to enrich lives, and maintain and strengthen those connections as well.
It is also important to understand that if you are truly enriching someone’s life, they will think not only that their lives have been better since meeting you, but they will wish they had met you earlier.
Finally, the Successful know that you are only as rich as the enrichment you bring to the world of those around you, and when you are able to enrich and empower someone’s life, you not only change a life, but you change a world.
Business Blogs and Content Marketing – The Future Now!
Published June 8, 2010 | Just in case you have been living somewhere in isolation and missed it, global marketing strategies have been going through some crazy evolution for small businesses and Entrepreneurs throughout the world, as times are changing, marketing has evolved, and you can rest assured that what was true 
yesterday no longer applies today, and tomorrow, this is why I can make the following true statement with complete confidence and certainty, since it’s already started, “Within the next 5 to 10 years, Blogs will be the foundation of any successful business and individual brand.”
That’s right, what was originally looked on by many in the market, as just a bunch of online noise and market clutter that would never find its voice, has revolutionized commerce, economies, and information sharing as we know it.
The world as we have known it has changed forever, for proof, think back and remember that just twenty years ago, what generally defined ‘having a business’ was the ownership of some type of ‘brick and mortar’ storefront or professional office, compare that to today, in 2010 and beyond, what defines the image of that very same business is its website, and the increased value added to the business by its comprehensive Web presence.
Also, not to long ago, it was common that company websites were few and far between, and seen as part of the world that belonged to Programming and Technology Geeks, but now, in an incredibly short span of less than ten years, businesses are expected to have websites as part of their Strategic Social Media and Web Marketing Plan, and even the mere mention of such an idea would have been viewed as completely preposterous by most of us less than a decade ago, during that same period of time, the Social Media (R)evolution has come in with such a furry that a website has become the expected core representation of any business and its brand.
So the obvious questions that always come to mind is “What’s the next phase of the Social Media (R)evolution,” and “What’s next that consumers in the global market will expect and demand?”
Over the next few years, as consumers continue to embrace Web technology even further, and as they become more and more adept at judging a business by its website, they will soon look for a company’s, or an individual’s, blog, yes, that’s right, just as a website is expected and searched for by today’s Web savvy consumer, a business’ blog will be expected by the consumer of tomorrow, and I don’t mean months or years from now, I do mean literally, tomorrow.
Although I know that many of you are in agreement with me right now, there are sadly still some that feel like blogging, and even websites hold little importance and consequence when it comes down to the successes and failures of a business.
Social Media and Web Marketing Success – Bacon Salt
Published April 7, 2010 | Many times it’s good to find cases and stories of real Entrepreneurs that were able to create a little marketing magic in their quest to build modest business success, but the quest turns wildly successful, something they could never have envisioned before starting the entrepreneurial adventure, and we want to learn from how they were able to achieve their great success.
Having said that, there are two technology executives named Justin and Dave that had absolutely no experience in the food industry between them, and no budget for marketing, but they decide to launch a product they called “Bacon Salt.”
To understand the market they begin their search for people who profess a great love for bacon on social networking sites, and then friend them of course, and begin to inject information about “Bacon Salt” into the vast social networking echo chamber, and awareness starts to build with a small percentage of the bacon lovers, and their enthusiasm begins to spread about “Bacon Salt,” and what began as a small group or tribe of bacon enthusiasts quickly begins to multiply as the word spreads throughout the many small silos of networks that make up the fabric of larger social networking sites, and turns into approximately 37,000 fans between Facebook and MySpace.
Time passes, and months later, the buzz that has been building starts to spill over into other media in newspaper articles, television interviews, until finally they reach the pinnacle of public relations, with an appearance on Oprah. Okay, so Justin and Dave with no knowledge of the food business and with no marketing budget, that find themselves in the unique position of having what some would call a cult hit, and feeling the inspiration, they create several other bacon-flavored products, which finally gives birth to the “Bacon Salt” brand.
Their wild ride to success began with a very small group of self-indentified fans of a category of food and spice, and even when social networks have millions of members, the odds are great against the group being able to transform into a larger group of millions of active buzz-spreading fans. 
Now Justin and Dave’s Bacon Salt success story serves to illustrate how what is typically a very small percentage of the tribe of fans who find it important enough to spread the word, and this small inner tribe of actively vocal fans normally makes up one percent or less of the larger tribe of fans, and reaching them should your targeted objective.
This extremely small percentage of the market is difficult to define, since they are not your typical name-brand bloggers, mommy and daddy bloggers, or even business bloggers, and they are scattered throughout all market segments and niches, yet you have to understand in no uncertain terms their importance to your immediate and long-term business success, because they are where word-of-mouth begins, the roots of word-of-mouth, and should be at the very top of every Entrepreneur’s list to not only find them, but attract and connect with them as well.
Understanding What Being “Connected” Means
Published April 6, 2010 | Believe it or not, there are many businesses that have ignored the trends about the importance of being connected with their markets, or might not even have an awareness of Twitter, Facebook, blogs and MySpace, and they are still making millions in profit.
At first glance we all think how can that be, what’s wrong with them, and how much more successful would they be if they were “connected?” Or worse yet, have we spent all the hours getting connected through the social networks that we hear about everyday so we don’t miss out on the latest wave of technology, and just what is it that’s important to allow us to maintain success in our business during challenging times like we are currently in, even if we’re not using the latest social media technology to stay connected?
At closer examination, we discover a simple fact that in reality is the key component to being “connected,” and that is businesses and Entrepreneurs have built their success through developing and maintaining personal relationships, and consistently delivering “great customer service” as part of the relationships, which continues to work for them and keeps their business more successful than most that become mired in the maze of 
social media technology.
I continue to be amazed by the phenomenal growth of people that continue to swell the ranks of users on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and the many other social networking sites, and the ever increasing amounts of time so many of us are spending in the echo chamber that keeps getting both larger and louder.
As more of us become slaves, tied to our mobile devices and the information radiating from our computer screens, some of us have come to the realization that having more voices doesn’t always mean there is a better dialogue, and more information doesn’t mean simplicity as hoped for.
You have probably looked around like I have, and noticed more and more of us walk with our heads down while we stare at small 3 inch mobile screens, oblivious to the world around us doing the same, and somehow we have 
convinced ourselves both individually and collectively that we are more “connected” then ever before in history, and anyone who can multi-task is looked at with great admiration reserved for only a select few.
I admit to not having all the answers to the many questions that are swirling around the social media echo chamber that most of us have become part of, but the answers are evolving along with how we adapt to and develop new technologies, and the one true fact we must never lose sight of is that building personal relationships and weaving them into the fabric of our customer service tapestry is an absolute critical component to achieving and maintaining the maximum perceived value and associated success of our entrepreneurial and business endeavors.