Libraries

A trip to the library is enlightening and profitable. You can read different kinds of books, magazines and newspapers. Many libraries have started offering free access to the internet for learning and research.

Information is like a gold mine. You don't have to dig for it. It's there and is mostly free. You can learn about how to do online trading in stock markets and engage in actual trading just by the click of your mouse.

You check the price of different items or you can look for the best entertainment places. Your library card allows you to browse or borrow the books that may interest you. The information that you can gather is of unlimited value.

Be humble

There is a direct relationship between humility and intelligenece. The higher the level of humility the higher the intelligence.

Humility is a teacher whether it is forced upon us or is self-generated.

Arrogance does just the reverse. Believing that your way is the only way is a form of arrogance. Humiliation makes us to recognize the need to change the way we think.

E-Commerce

"Like the railroad, e-commerce has brought forward a new impact, rapidly changing economics, the society and politics."
-Peter Drucker.

Electronic commerce is a major driver of business change. Today information is easily available. E-Commerce makes it possible for marketing companies to transcend physical boundaries and promote their products worldwide.

The internet affects everyone. You can buy products on line. If you are buying curtains for your house, you can choose the colour, size, fittings and even receive a virtual sample before you actually make your purchase sitting in the comfort of your home. You pay online by e-cash or credit cards and the items are deliverd to your doorstep. This is a whole new way of doing business. Now the customer is truly king.

E-Commerce has far reaching repercussions not just in business but also how politicians govern and how the society acts as a whole.

For us to get the maximum benifit of this change, we should understand how the world wide web operates and what technologies drive e-commerce.

Franchising

Franchising is a powerful means of distribution for goods and services. The most common and prevalent types of franchising are:

1. Product franchising. The product is sold as it is receievd from the company. The only value addition that happens at the franchise outlet is in terms of display which provides easy access and purchase to the customer. An example would be car dealership.

2. Process franchising is a little more complex. Here, The franchise outlets are granted the rights to the brand name and the process by the parent organisation. The "process" or the "recipe" may be patented by the parent organisation and the franchise outlet has the right to use the "process" and sell the product under the parent organisation's name. Examples of this type are mainly in the food industry.

3."Business Format Franchising" is more comprehensive, where the name, sale and method of doing business are transferred to the franchise outlet. The transfer of knowledge for conducting the business has to be accompanied by an effective follow-up mechanism. McDonald has perfected this technique over the years.

Franchising appeals to people who are inerested to buy a ready-made business.
Thus, they can avoid having to build a business step by step, as must entrepreneurs who start from scratch. In return for their investment, frachisees receive professional and other help to start and manage the business.

Think outside the box

Look at challenges as opportunities to test our physical and mental strenths and endurance. We usually think of limitations as undesireable, yet we are in constant contact with them in every aspect of our lives. For the arthritis sufferer the simplest tasks, such as opening doors or fixing a meal can take on proportions of pain and frustration that a non sufferer wouldn't understand.

The key is to use these limitations as stimuli for creative imaginative drives to greater heights and new frontiers. The human race built the highest when limitations were the greatest. Make limitations your good friend. Redfine the limitations and work around the problem to explore and find new possibilities.

Wholesale Distributor

Wholesale distribution represents perhaps the highest level (next to manufacturing) of broad general purchase interest to consumers. Neither requiring the skills of production nor requiring direct confrontation with consumers, this is a service based in marketing know-how and product transportation.

Wholesaling is not limited solely to product distribution. A broad concept will include the marketing of business services to other organisations, who in turn "resell" these services to consumers.

People Skills

If you want to do well in your life and your career, you need to have good people skills.

1.The first is listening. Become a good listener. Some people will not wait for you to finish your sentence, they'll interupt you and begin talking. That's not good listening. Be attentive , have patience and listen to the other person with interest.

2. The second is being accomodating. This is not only politeness but also responsiveness to the other person's needs.

3. Thinking on your feet. This skill refers to everything from creativity to problem solving. The ability to find quick and satisfactory solutions is a very important skill in this rapidly changing world.

Golden Rule

The greatest of all success rules is this:

"Do unto others as you would if you were the others."

The golden rule is more than a principle of ethical behaviour, it is a dynamic force that can work good in the lives of untold numbers of people.

Opportunity

Life always provides opportunities. Opportunities to do good, to help others, to serve your community or to make money. The challenge is to seize them when they appear and make the best of it. Once they pass you by, some may never return to you.

"The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell."
- Andrew Carnegie.

Knowledge

How will you use knowledge?

Knowledge that is technical or mechanical can be used to do a job. Engineers, technicians and scientists do this.

Knowledge can be used to help and bring joy to people. This type of knowledge is mental, social and spiritual. It involves a deep understanding and rapport with people.

People with talent and knowledge can restict their influence and ability through poor communication. People with good communication skills but poor talent and knowledge often end up " providing little value" to others.

Your mind is powerful. Its food and building blocks are thoughts and feelings. The power of the mind resides in the use of knowledge. This power is unlimited.

Intelligence

Intelligence is defined by Webstar as:

• The power of meeting (or adapting to) any situation, successfully by behaviour adjustment
• The ability to apprehend facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal.
• Success in meeting or solving problems.
• The capacity for understanding behaviour, aptitude for grasping truths, facts and meaning.

Intelligence depends on having knowledge and then its use. You must be motivated to acquire knowledge before you could become intelligent. Intelligence is the use of knowledge. Intelligence depends on:

• Clearness of impression
• Ability to assimilate and retain
• Fertile imagination
• Responsiveness to conditions
• Self-crticism ( assessment of your own weaknesses and strengths)
• Confidence
• Strong motivation.

Creative intelligence is the life of society.

Thinking

Thinking is an internal mental process that uses information as the input. Thinking is an important tool to generate ideas.

In the earlier methods of thought, people sought answers to problems by engaging in debate and agrument. This is time consuming and not very effective.

The main difficulty with thinking is that we try to do too much at once. Emotion, logic, information, hope and creativity all crowd in on us.

Edward De Bono's six hat method explains that we can achieve more productive thinking if everyone involved stick to one concept at a time.

Since thinking is a skill, we can train to think better. Successful people have developed their own thinking style without training.

Their ability to focus and determine priorities is a component of their style. At work many of us are on automatic pilot a lot of the time. We just keep on doing things without even thinking why we are doing it.

Today, there are schools that teach the different aspects of thinking. There is creative thinking which will involve the six hats method and also strategic thinking. I shall leave you to think on the following question.

"Where do ideas come from."

Network Marketing

Network marketing or Muliti-Level marketing(MLM) is fun and fast growing. In this concept goods are moved from factory to the customers through a network of distributors.

Each distributor has the right to sell the product and also build a team. The network marketing company rewards those for their sales as well as for the team they build.

Network marketing calls for creative ways of thinking. Every distributor is a business leader. He has to not only sell but teach others the benifits of the product and how to sell it.

Network marketing is about commiting to the success of other people. People are beginning to see network marketing as synonymous with contribution to others and personal growth.

Communication

More tools have been unearthed in the 21st-century than at any other time. E-writing is the new communication tool. Keep aside the rules of writing given by Strunk & White.

The writing culture has changed and many say for the better. Emails and SMS are flying around in the cyberspace.

People power has transformed to blogging power. Public officials have taken note of this change.

These new medium of communications are being used for advertising, public relations and fund raising. Public and corporate officials are brought to scrutiny by the click of a mouse or the twitch of the finger.

When such power is at our finger tips, we have to guard against a trigger-happy "Send" finger. Thus avoiding unedited or half-written emails being sent accidentally.

In order to maintain our productivity we need to reduce the trivia coming in to our inbox. Email alone has revolutionized the way we work. Email helps us to respond to our customers much faster.

With such fast communication our reaction time has also got to be faster. We need not only to be able think on our feet, but we should be able to think as we click the mouse.

Computer Video Games

In 1972, the first commercial video console game that could be played at home was released. It was named as the Odyssey and was designed by Ralph Baer. In 1980, Atari's "Asteroids" and "Lunar Lander" were released. In 1997 Nintendo came out with Game Boy. Gaming has been booming over the last two decades. Today games can be played on computers that deliver lifelike, 3D images. Games can be classified as follows.

1. ACTION GAMES.
These games tend to be violent and involves players shooting other characters. Some action games involve first person shooters which gives an "over the barrel" point of view. Others involve adventure and combat.
2. ROLE-PLAYING GAMES
In these games, the player adopts a persona and takes part in a fictional universe. These could be multiplayer games where players in different locations are connected through the internet to play at the same time.
3. REAL-TIME STRATEGY GAMES
These games require players to plan resources, to negotiate, form alliances and to solve problems.
4.ADVENTURE GAMES
Players use clues to overcome obstacles and solve problems in a fictional world.
5. SIMULATORS
Thes games involve simulating an experience such as in an aircraft cockpit or tank.
6. SPORTS
Players play these games like NBA Basketball, Golf or Football.
7-PLATFORM GAMES
These games involve players chasing or avoiding characters by jumping from one platform to another.

While video games can be fun, it can also be addictive. It is necessary for parents to supervise children so that they can play the right type of game. Games can help develop strategic thinking and planning skills.

Books

The best well-rounded education is a good collection of books. It will take several lifetimes to read all the good books. So read the greatest books, the most useful books, the best parts of the best books.

The popularity of electronic publishing has made some book lovers feel that they may not get to hold their print books with the coffee in hand much longer. But this is never likely to happen as they both offer different values to the reader.

"Prefer knowledge to wealth, for one is transitory, the other perpetual."
- Socrates.

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends:
they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors,
and the most patient of teachers."
-Charles William Eliot.

So keep reading good books.

Marketing

Marketing could be defined as the process of getting the right goods or services in the right quantity to the right place at the right time and making a profit out of the operation. Marketing is a comprehensive function.. It is concerned with every aspect of the product from its inception, design, pricing, distribution, selling and promotion until it finally reaches the hands of the consumer.

Therefore, marketing is not just selling a product. It is concerned with what is to be sold, how it is to be sold and when it is to be sold. Marketing must find out the attitude of comsumers for the proposed product or service. Marketing must look into the likely future pattern of demand. The planning of sales is a further fuction of the marketing department. The choice of the best methods of distribution- via the wholesaler, direct to the retail outlet, by mail order or through the internet must be carefully considered.

In summary, the marketing department should attempt to achieve high-volume sales. It should create more customers. It follows from this, that every business wants to build a relationship with their customers and add value to their brand. Advertisers are beginning to realize that public broadcasts in the mass media are rarely cost effective. They want a dialogue with individual consumers. Home delivery is the fastest growing added-value service. Mass marketing is in its death throes. Telemarketing and direct selling networks are booming. Databases are on top of the list.

We seem to have come full circle- back to where we were a few decades ago. So what is different? Now we use interactive information superhighways, the internet, direct mail and databases, telemarketing, electronic transactions, smart cards, scanners, bar codes and customer reward programs.

Corporate transparency

With the collapse of reputable big companies like the Enron and WorldCom, the way companies are bieng run has started to get microscopic scrutiny. Both Enron and WorldCom, giants in their respective industries of energy and telecommunications have declared bankrupcy.

The CEO of WorldCom has been given 25 years imprisonment for his role in the largest corporate bankrupcy in US history. The investors have lost millions of dollars and the ground has shaken under their feet. Several officers held responsible for this debacle have been sent to prison. Once more tax payers and the public will have to pay to keep them there.

How did this happen in the most business-friendly and free society? These questions have already been raised, laws and regluations put into place to protect investors and plug loopholes in company management. Everyone talks of good governance these days.

Investors have a responsibility to find out about the companies they invest in and not become complacent in their scrutiny of how the companies are run. From time to time smart crooks will appear to manipulate the system and take advantage of unsuspecting employees and investors. If employees and investors remain vigilant, this challenge can be met.

Information is important in every business

In many industries not widely considered information business, information actually represents a large percentage of the cost structure.

When we think of a value chain, we tend to visualise a linear flow of physical activities. But the value chain also includes all the information that flows within a company and its suppliers, its distributors and its consumers. Supplier relationships, brand identity and customer loyalty all depend on various kinds of information.

When mangers talk about the value of customer relationships, for example, what they mean is the proprietary information that they have about their customers and that their customers have about the company and their products.

The changing economics of information threaten to undermine established value chains in many sectors of the economy requiring virtually every company to rethink its strategy not incrementally, but fundamentally.

Information and information management is big business today. Information about the company structure, its finance and how the busineeses are run has made transparency a watchword for companies to compete and survive in the digital age. Other factors such as allocation of resources and productivity are equally important for wealth creation.

The explosion of information in the business arena has changed the competetive landscape bringing tremendous opportunities where none existed before. Wealth is more easily created and is within reach to anyone who is prepared to rise upto it.

Illiterate become literate by the computer.

The right word on top should be simputer. Simputer is the answer to bridge the digital divide. It is a portable, low cost device and much smaller than a computer. It was developed by a company in Bangalore, the Indian IT capital. India has more than a billion plus population. In several rural areas of India with a low literacy rate and other developing countries, the simputer will bring revolutionary changes . The simputer has a touch screen where one can select characters. The user interface is based on sight, touch and audio. Here's a link to more info:simputer.org

How to become a multipreneur

To succeed in business today, and even in many non- business fields you must have entrepreneural skills, i.e; one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risk of the enterprise. Mulitipreneurs have muti skills.

To become a multipreneur you must realize that your economic value depends upon your ability to make or save money for others and your ability to add value to the process.

Your economic value will not depend upon your position, seniority, or connections. You must therefore train yourself to see opportunities where others see problems.

You must choose your assignments on the basis of the skills that you can learn as well as those that can apply. You must develop your interpersonal skills so that you can make things happen rather than wait for things to happen.

You must grasp the truest nature of what it means to be in a free society that is moving from corporate feudalism to individual capitalism.

Multipreneurs manage financial risks, professional risks, emotional risks and creative risks. Multipreneuring is a continual learning process of new skills, new strategies and new markets.

Multiprenurial approach has come to the forefront and the social contract between employer and employee has changed. The skills you need to ge a job and retain a job has also changed.

The new factors of production-knowledge and technology are available almost on an open basis. Acess to distribution chanels and even to funding is openly available.

It is all there for you to take and express your concept of how it should be done in the market place. What "it" is depends entirely upon you.

Plan to Win

No condition in life so formidable that victory is impossible. If you are not getting what you want in life today, it is because you did not plan your life well yesterday. By extension, if you do not plan your time well today, your life will not work out well for you tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the same as today.

Without a plan for your life it is easier to follow the course of least resistance, to go with the flow, to drift with the current with no particular destination in mind. There is no such thing as failure unless it is accepted as such. Every defeat is temporary unless you give up and allow it to become permanent.

True success in life is not so much intelligence or opportunity as of hard work and dedication. Willingness and learning can achieve more than talent and ability.

In order to win you must also accept that life has its fair share of losses, disappointments and pain. With such a mindset it is easier to achieve you goal.

Murphy's law and Casey's law

Murphy's law named after Major Edward A. Murphy Jr. is a popular adage in the western culture. It states as "anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

Casey's law named after Albert V. Casey a businessman states, "If something should go right, it should." Casey's law scoffs at pessimism and encourages us to see the bright side of things in any and every circumstance.

So who is right? Which of these contradictory laws should we believe?
There are no right answers. At one end people sometimes fall prey to pessimism and at the other end they give in to unrealistic optimism. When situations are under control we tend to be unrealistically optimistic. During stressful situations, when most things seem to go wrong and the best of our efforts seem to be futile, pessimism seems to prevail.

What is important is during both types of situations, we draw on our intelligence, focus, creativity and courage which are what we need the most to persevere. Murphy's law is capable
of moderating over-confidence while Casey's law can shield against self-doubt.

Increase Your Value

Before you can increase your value you should know what your value is. Most people can easily tell you the value of their house, furniture or car.

But they would struggle to tell you their personal value. This problem is compounded because the industrial economy is now fast changing over to a knowledge economy.

Up to now we have sold our time in exchange for a fixed income to earn a living wage. We accept our income often decided by our employers to be our value.

This is dramatically changing with the advent of the internet and the information age. A small team of programmers working from a garage can develop a software that can generate millions of dollars of revenue.

The value of such knowledge workers isn’t based on the time they put in. In the knowledge economy before you sell anything you need to sell yourself. You need to know what you are good at and what ideas you have.

Once you know the impact of the work you contribute, you can decide how to share in the value they create.

You take responsibility for your personal value and carry on a lifelong learning process. You can treat yourself as a business trading in the open market.

Thus the value of your service will depend on the supply and demand for such service.

Understand the value of your knowledge and market it so that you have maximum revenue and the satisfaction of realizing your highest potential.

Hobbies

Most of us may have felt bored at one time or another. Is there a way to overcome boredom?

Develop a hobby.

To the chronically depressed this is easier said. But hobbies relax the mind and so provide health stimulating benefits. Hobbies fall into four catagories.
1. Doing things
2. Collecting things
3. Making things
4. Studyning or learning about things
Many peoples lives are consumed doing a job to eke out a living. They may have little influence on unscrupulous public officials or corrupt business practices which affect their everyday lives. But the avid hobbyist derives tremendous pleasure from his hobby and sometimes contributes greatly to society; a side effect of his passion.
One of my hobbies is collecting books mostly non-fiction. Two of the most valuable books in my collection are:
"Grow Rich with Peace of Mind"
"Think and Grow Rich"
Both books are by Napoleon Hill.

Can there be success without happiness?

Success and happiness are not guaranteed by the material possessions of our life. It comes only as a result of how we live our life.

To achieve success we must prepare for it. There must be the will to succeed.

We must not only do the things necessary to succeed, but also abstain from that which will hinder our success.

Success can be external or internal. The recognition that comes from a job well done is a measure of external success. Internally, it is a feeling of achievement which comes on the completion of a task.

If your happiness is dependant on forces outside your control, you are bound to feel disappointed. Regardless of your finacial status in life, if you accept that you have done all what you can to uplift your life, you should be happy.

Happiness is an expression of appreciation for the things we have now and not in any particular destination which you may strive to arrive at. Happiness is in the journey.

There is a huge difference between achieving to be happy and happily achieving. Don't put off joy and happiness.

Coming back to my title; My answer is NO, there cannot be success without happiness.

Do good while you can

My blog will show what has influenced my life and what I believe in passionately. What I put out will be constructive, positive and I hope of some benefit to anyone who stops by. As my first posting, I like to put out a piece from an anonymous author which has made a lasting imprint on my mind ever since I read it some time back. Here it goes:

"I shall pass this way but once,
Any good , therefore, that I can do
Or any kindness that I can
show to any human being,
Let me do it now
Let me not defer or neglect it
For I shall not pass this way again."