Questions That Create Entrepreneurial Success
Published February 16, 2012 | 
Always Remember, that it’s Our Choices, not Chances that Decide our Destiny.
Truly successful entrepreneurs develop early on, the unique skill of incredible focus on the things that really matter. Let’s examine a few questions that you can ask yourself on a daily basis to develop, sharpen, and maintain the high-level of focus that’s so critical to navigating your journey on the road to success.
First of all, do you consider success means making lots of money? If you do, then you may want to think again.
Let’s face the fact that simple pictures of dead presidents (i.e. money etc.) have never really made anybody truly happy. And success without happiness is not, well, success. So, someone buying a lot of things and spending a lot of money may be good for a moment, but only a moment. For instance, a brand new car may really keep you pumped with emotion for a day, a week or two, and even a month, but the pride of ownership is short-term and transitory to the continuous search for the illusive moments of being happy.
Real entrepreneurial success comes from the quality of relationships entrepreneurs have and the real emotions that they experience each and every day. 
Let’s look closely at questions you need to strongly consider asking at the end of each day, and you can be guaranteed that you’ll become more successful. Ready? Here are the questions and they all start with “Have I…”
- Made absolutely sure that those I love feel loved?
- Done something to improve the world today?
- Spent time conditioning my body for more strength, flexibility and resiliency?
- Reviewed, sharpened, and improve my plans for the future?
- Maintained the same high-level of integrity whether in private or the public eye?
- Avoided unkind words and actions of a strong and lasting negative nature?
- Been able to accomplish something meaningful and worthwhile?
- Provided help to somebody in less fortunate circumstances?
- Created any valuable moments that make up future wonderful memories and recollections?
- Felt really thankful for the tremendous gift of just being alive?
Here’s the real heart of the matter. Questions that you ask yourself on a daily basis contribute to your level of focus, and the strength of your focus directly shapes and influences the results of what you do.
Simple questions like these compel you to focus on the things that are really important in your life. Learn them, pay attention to of them, use them, and the rest of your life, especially your work and your business will quickly create a place where success becomes the destiny you control. And by doing so, you will be able to both visualize and navigate a straighter path as you journey on “your road to success.”
Biz Success! SunPower – Changing the Way the World is Powered!
Published May 18, 2010 | Team Altman Business Success Video! SunPower!
One man had a dream to develop the solar power used for satellites in Space as an affordable alternative to fossil fuels, here on Earth. Dick Swanson faced huge skepticism from the industry, but 40 years on runs a thriving, billion dollar company, SunPower – Changing the Way the World is Powered!
As always enjoy, and share the SunPower Success!
Understand Entrepreneurial Success and Sacrifice
Published May 12, 2010 | Do you view your business as a winning business, and are you willing to let your business sacrifice losing customers in order to win customers?
There is an obvious trait that successful businesses all have in common, “a divisive point of view,” as opposed to failing unsuccessful businesses with a boring and bland personality with “no point of view” that might 
alienate a customer, a common trait that sparks no passion from anyone including both customers and employees.
Let’s take a close look at Costco and Sam’s Club for example, which both win customers by losing customers, in a model that eliminates customers that are not willing to pay the annual membership fee to shop, and it’s business model that includes bundled merchandise, limited choices, and low prices, which strengthens the loyalty of customers that want the lower prices, and loses the customers that want more choices.
Other businesses have found success through the combination of provocative advertising and political stances on issues that often offend some consumers, while targeting a smaller market niche of select consumers who connect with the unique brand personality the businesses have developed and promote.
It is unfortunate that many Entrepreneurs have been conditioned that the customer is always right and they will do whatever it takes to “not lose” a customer, and always agree with the often nonsensical whims of customers, 
which brings us to the important point to be aware of and always remember, is that many successful businesses are willing to sacrifice and lose customers, in order to win even more loyal customers that value the business a lot more.
Many successful Entrepreneurs completely understand from experience that to “gain” and build their businesses strong customer base that is loyal to the “brand,” they must be willing to lose certain customers, especially the ones that ultimately prove they are not part of the business’ target market niche.
Think Business as Unusual For Success in 2010 and Beyond
Published May 1, 2010 | Capitalism is just a word, but unlike any other word it’s meaning creates instant strong feelings in many that hear it on both sides of an economic battle of words that’s been waged for many years, and judging from the popular word on the street, Capitalism has been targeted as the root of all that’s evil in the economy and has been out of fashion in the U.S. and Europe long before the Great Recession hit the global economy hard approximately 3 years ago.
In 2010 and beyond, we as Entrepreneurs and Small Business owners need to adapt a new mind-set in terms of, and prepare for the non-traditional “business as unusual,” since the market has developed a stronger awareness and global understanding, added to an already strong sense of urgency that “economic sustainability” has to become reality rather than a discussion topic, and is the only way to bring much needed “certainty” to the future, while going forward in the near term, and of course, how sustainability impacts consumer driven economic societies remains a major component of continuing discussion and debate.
In closer examination and analysis of the markets that make up the established and mature consumer driven economies represented by the U.S. and Europe, businesses will have to do more than the traditional old school way of doing “business as usual” that dictates just the embrace of the notion of being a good corporate citizen in the global economy. For business to be successful from this point forward they will have to be able to quickly adapt to what the market presents and move with the cultural shifts and evolution of technology to remain CONNECTED.
To build value in the markets of the global economy, with enlightened consumers that possess heightened levels of awareness not seen before, this might require a greater display of transparency and honesty, and taking part in real meaningful conversations as opposed to the traditional approach of one-way advertising, and build strong relationships by championing collaboration instead of the traditionally one-way us-them mindset, or, the message could be presented inherently about generosity versus greed, or build the reputation of being edgy and daring as opposed to safe and bland. All of which can work together to increase, build and leverage the sustainable perceived, and therefore real value in the eyes of consumers in the global market, in whatever niche they reside.
As always, the future of the global consumer markets will be unevenly distributed, but one only needs to look closely at successful business models like Google, Amazon, Zappos and Virgin to get a strong understanding and instinctive feel for what “business as unusual” is all about, and in doing so, not surprisingly, the trends point to the growing success of “doing things differently,” driven by changing identifiable consumer preferences and desires. The wise Entrepreneur will recognize the importance of making the time to study and learn from those brands that they think are already mirroring today’s more diverse, chaotic, networked society, and then even more importantly, develop critical strategies to first join them, and then outdo them as markets continue to evolve.
E-Commerce, Security, and Managing Risk … Part I
Published April 21, 2010 | Find out how to protect your computer and businesses while managing online risk.
This is a preview of the Table of Contents for the E-Commerce, Security, and Managing Risk eBook. Found only at Team Altman Dot Com!
Table of Contents.:
Introduction
How Hackers and Crackers Can Cripple the Internet and Your PC
Getting into the mind of the intruder
Managing Your e-Risk
What are Viruses, Trojans, Malware and more!
Three Common Security Methods Used in Web Communications
Wireless Security (Wifi security) The good and Bad!
Implementing Fire Walls and Available Configurations
Encryption Technology
Hot Tips and Web Links
Introduction .:
First, we should first realize that the internet’s very nature opens up to harmful attacks. It was designed to allow free information to exchange –success followed quickly growing far beyond the designers wildest expectations. However, this comes with a price! Hackers and virus writers try to attack using the internet and computers connected to the network. I have seen many different large viruses attack servers and databases while working for some large companies as technical support for MSN. I was amazed at how many people were affected by these viruses. I have noticed and learned that many virus writers are targeting Microsoft products like servers and data bases. These same programs can detect and turn off your antivirus software or this was the case once upon a time.
I should state, hope that this is obvious, that the internet is different from the World Wide Web and was started by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991. More servers were put online, and with the Mosaic web browser released in 1993, followed by Netscape in 1994, more and more people installed web browsers and began participating in the Web. The amount of the world that uses the internet and web is simply amazing as we enter into the world of web 2.0!
Wow! What a large topic to cover. Take a moment and think about all the different computers in the world and all the possible security risks that might be involved. This is a tad over whelming for many. I will do my best to provide enough details about what types of technologies are out in the world and strategies for security and managing your risk. We should start off by looking at what are the types of security that we should be thinking about.
Well, there are in fact two types of general security which are:
- Physical
- Logical
What is physical? Generally speaking physical is tangible. This type of security is hard to know and difficult to place a value on. Still, it is important to look at even the intangible. You would think that physical is easy to see and easy to implement security, but it may be that you need less or more security than you would have thought true.
What is Logical? Logical is protection using nonphysical means. We would use programming for instance to help logically protect or add a layer of security. A sensory in your car can detect a person that is walking to close to your vehicle. The logical sensors in the computer will signal and react depending on the logic of the programming. Each area is important as a general guide. During this course I would like to help you see the different types of threats, ways to think about measuring the risks, and ways to see how we use the internet. There are many built in features to the internet but many we must implement ourselves at home or on the job.
A few more computer security concepts to think about are the following:
- Confidentiality…..: Protecting Data
- Integrity……………: Data and System functions
- Availability………..: Service is Not denied to authorized users
- Authenticity………: Being Genuine
- Accountability……: Security Goals are Met
Well, time to dive-in and I hope that I can keep this all simple and straight forward.
Next on the Agenda!
How Hackers and Crackers Can Cripple the Internet and Your PC
Stay tuned… more will be added soon!
======================== HOT Tips =======================
Hijack This
http://cnettv.cnet.com/quick-tips-permanently-delete-malware/9742-1_53-27657.html
Encrypting your Thumb Drives
http://cnettv.cnet.com/thumbdrive-encryption/9742-1_53-32304.html