Neville's Financial Blog

I made the original Seinfeld Calendar post 4 months ago.

It's simply a giant year calendar that faces my bed so I see it all the time. If I accomplish my daily to-do list, I put a checkmark. If I don't finish the to-do list, I put a dot:

The whole reasoning for this calendar is to make finishing my daily goals consistent. The quote I keep on top of the calendar sums it up:

Excellence is not an act, but a habit
--Plato

Here's the number results of these four months (weekends included):

Good Day: When my written-the-night-before to-do lists get completely finished.
Bad Day: When to-do list not fully finished. Most of the bad days are weekends.

UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES:
The to-do lists I give myself are generally quite a bit of work. A standard to-do list generally will keep me occupied for a full 8-12 hours. Sometimes it takes less, sometimes it takes more. Most of this work involves me staring at a computer, so 8-12 hours of this per day gets a little straining.

I noticed when I tried getting a checkmark 7 days of the week, I burned myself out! The following days would be very unproductive and filled with low quality work because I was burning myself out. So after figuring out different ways of becoming more productive, I found out the best way is to allow myself about 2 bad days per week. This can be the weekdays or weekends...whatever I feel. This way the work is enjoyable and I still get large amounts of work done.

Here is a recent shot of the filled out calendar:

The first month I was getting REALLY pissed if I didn't fill out a checkmark for the day, so I started working very hard the next day to fill it out. After a while I started making checking these off a habit. It's helped me stop procrastinating as much, because in the middle of the day I think, "I can either continue to screw off and get a dot for the day, or just start doing this work, getting it out of the way and get a checkmark for the day."

I also have less fun going out if I don't finish all my work. When I finish off a great day of work, it feels good and well deserved to go out. So being more productive actually allows me to have more fun!

Anyhow, I'd highly recommend this Seinfeld Productivity Calendar method. It's definitely helped me become more focused and productive through the day!

Labels: Goals, Productivity, Quotes

Whenever I come across a good quote from anything...a book, interview, podcast, magazine, TV show etc...I write it down either in a notepad, my Google Desktop bar or my iPhone.

Here is my quote bank:

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
--Aristotle

Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of a neighbor, will feel pleasure in the reverse.
--Franklin

Man is made for bustle and movement. A ship in motion, a fine woman dancing.
--Abigale Adams

People have everything we want.
--Earl Nightingale

Eating with utensils is like making love with your clothes on.
--Placemat in Indian restaraunt in South Africa from Diana Nightingale book

When asked if one should marry or not, Socrates responded, "You will repent it either way."

The great majority of people do not achieve unusual success; why would we expect that getting in the same line as them in any endeavor would result in any sort of remarkable success?
--Earl Nightingale's Greatest Discovery page 118

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.
--Anti

Good looks help and constitute an asset if the rest of the person is in balance.
--Earl Nightingale

The only thing about a man that is a man is his thinker. Everything else you can find in a pig or a horse.
-Archibald mcleish

Your stomach should be filled 1/3rd with food, 1/3rd with water and 1/3rd empty to be at your most productive.
--Muslim quote

If you can't poke fun at yourself, you're not much.
--George Steinburner

He who has health, has hope, and he who has hope, has everything.
--old Arabian proverb

The atitude must preceed the accomplishment.
--Nightingale

When a man doesn't know which harbor he's sailing to, no wind is the right wind.
--Senneca

You can't have your Kate and Edith too.
-Statler Brothers

If it feels right, smells right and tastes right, it's almost surely the right thing to do. It really is as simple as that.
--Captain Michael Abrashoff

Talking about men in their forties experiencing a mid-life crisis:
"Suddenly the past seems a humiliating reminder of risks untaken, women unconquered, and chances ignored."
--Nancy Mayer

If someone says a particular person spoke critically of you, just smile and reply, "I guess they don't know about all my other faults. Otherwise, he wouldn't have mentioned only these"
--Epictetus

Books are the training weights of the mind.
--Epictetus

Man cannot remake himself without suffering. For he is both the marble and the sculptor.
--Alexis Carrel

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet attested their wealth stems in part from being born in America where "innovation and risk are rewarded"

Aristotle said, "Happiness is a byproduct of healthful and successful activity."

Everytime you do something, you throw a boomerang. Eventually the result will come back to you.

It's true some of the best things in life a free, but it's funny....have you ever tried getting them without money?

To get a great idea, come up with lots of them.
--Thomas Edison

Write as well as you can and finish what you start.
--Ernest Hemingway

When asked for the formula of success, Andrew Carnegie said, "Put all your eggs in one basket, then watch that basket."

The purpose of ANY organization is to help man enjoy a more meaningful existence.
--Direct Line 18B towards end

I cannot become who I want to be by remaining who I am.

The bedrock values instilled by Sam Walton and his early lieutenants were all-american values: Hard Work, frugality, discipline, loyalty, a restless effort at constant self-improvement.
--The Wal-Mart Effect

Sam was no genius...he was a workaholic. He was not driven by money, but by competition. He could be playing tennis with a one-legged man in a wheelchair and would show no mercy.
--The Wal-Mart Effect

Any business needs to concentrate on two things: order volume and avg order value.

Like an hourglass, only one grain at a time can pass through. If we go one grain at a time, slowly buy surely we can get an enormous quantity done.

Willis H. Carrier:
I have bee using this same anti-worry technique for 30 years:
Step 1.) Analyze the situation fearlessly and honestly and figure out what's the worst that could possibly happen.
----
Step 2.) after figuring out the worst outcome, I reconciled myself into accepting it if necessary.
-----
Step 3.) from that time on I devoted my time and energy to trying to improve upon the worst which I had already accepted mentally.

Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw the mud, the other saw the stars.

Greek proverb: The best things are the most difficult.

To make things more pleasant for others is a reason for being.

The best laid schemes o' mice and men often go astray.
--Robert Burns

Wise men ne'er sit and wait their loss, but cheerily seek how to redress their harms.
--Shakespear

A man is what he thinks about all day long.
--Emerson

Our life is what our thoughts make of it.
--Marcus Aurelius

I had the blue because I had no shoes,
Until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet.

Find a problem, then ask the opposite.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.
--Dr. Seuss

It's nice to be part of something that will last a little longer than you will.

Doctors give up a year of life to specialize, but they reap the rewards for decades to come.
--The Dip - Seth Godin

Scarcity creates value.

Never retreat. Never explain. Get it done and let them howl.
--Benjamin jowett

We could be playing cards right now and I'd want to kick your ass. Not win, but kick your ass. There's a difference.
--Tiger Woods

When asked, "What is your idea of happiness?"...Alfred Hitchcock replied, "A clear horizon."

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well neither does bathing. That's why we recommend it daily.
--Zig Ziglar

Don't write about what your readers want you to write about. Write about what you're passionate about.
--Mark Cuban/Tim Ferris

If you don't know what to write about, write about what makes you angry, but don't attack people.

Excellence is not an act, but a habit.
--Plato

Talent is the desire to practice. You love something so much, you're willing to make a large sacrifice for it.
--Malcom Gladwell

It doesn't take any more time or effort to dream a big dream than a small dream.

I'm a great believer in saying yes and not no."
--Richard Branson

It HAS to be something you like, or you WILL bail.
--Joe Liemandt

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

You don't go in the studio and think, "Ok, what would people want to hear me sing about." I go in there and think, "Ok, what just happened this weekend? You just gotta keep it real with yourself"
-T-pain interview (Yes, I just included a quote by T-pain...you can learn something from everyone)!

If you could put a silver bullet in one competitor, which one would it be? You'll quickly find out who the best is
--Warren Buffet

If you risk something that is important to you, for something that is not important to you, it's just foolish.
--Warren Buffet

Build a moat around your business. When I invest in a company, the only guidance I give the managers is to continue building that moat. Make it bigger, make it deeper, throw crocodiles in it.
--Warren Buffet

The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.
--Paraclese

If you stay ready, you never have to GET ready
--Will Smith

Take what you love to do and apply it to something profitable.

Almost everything you do should be building upon somthing which you can look back at in its entirety and be proud, or sell.

If your competitor is so dull they can't come up with something original about their own products or services and have to steal things you create, they won't be competition for long.

Define success:
A=X+Y+Z
A= Success
X = Work
Y = Play
Z = Keep your mouth shut
--Albert Einstein

The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.
--Malcolm Gladwell

Rules prevent disaster, but they ensure medicrity
--Barry Schwartz

There is only one goodness, it is knowledge. There is only one evil, it is negligence.
--Socrates

It may be that taking the focus off your own happiness is what makes happiness possible.
--From a satire article in Cracked

We tend to play things ridiculously safe...it seems as if some people think they're going to live forever.
--Earl Nightingale

When asked where all his success comes from, Ted Turned simply replied, "Thinking. I read and I thought."

Stanger, if we pass each other and you desire to speak to me, why should you not? And why should I not speak to you?
--Walt Whitman

If you're just a distributor, where will you be in 5 years when the major suppliers begin vertically integrating?
--Ted Turner

In chess, a 1 or 2 ahead player always gets beat by someone who looks 7 or 8 moves ahead. I always wanted to think a few moves ahead of the competition.
--Ted Turner

When asked about the secret to longevity in show business, George Carlin replied, "Productivity."

Lasting a long time is a function of pleasing a wide range of people.

To make more money: Motivate yourself by trying to solve peoples problems, not looking to sell them something.

If you give a child too many gifts, he will take them for granted. However we have been given a gift beyond measure (power of the mind), and we do much the same.
--Earl Nightingale

Beauty without intelligence is like a masterpiece painted on a napkin.

The man who has least fear for his carcass, has much time to consider others.

Conform to their style and they'll remember you a day. Create your own style and they'll remember you forever.

Humans must always have a carrot on a stick
--Maslow

Everybody is creative, and everybody is talented. I just don't think everybody is discipined.
--Al Hirschfeld

Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses.
--Isabel Allende

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it." --W. Somerset Maugham

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
--Mark Twain

Creativity starts when you cut a zero from your budget."
--Jaime Lerner

At the age of 24 I began setting clear, written goals for each area of my life. I accomplished more in the following year than I had in the previous 24.
--Brian Tracy

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
--Vidal Sassoon

If you sleep you can have sweet dreams...if you work hard you make dreams come true.
--Professor Kwag

Train yourself to let go of the things you fear to lose.
--George Lucas

In the words of William Arthur Ward, "Study while others are sleeping, work while others are loafing, prepare while others are playing, and dream while others are wishing."

------update: 10-05-2009---------

When investing, pessimism is your friend, euphoria the enemy.
--Warren Buffet 2008 shareholder letter

People don't like gadgets, they like experiences. iPhone ads never highlight the technology or show the charger.
--Steve Oskoui

Stop thinking about how to get from people, and start thinking how to create value for them. Massive amounts for them.
--Eben Pagan

If you will take your best ideas, give them away, then people will presume what you're selling is worth more.
--Eben Pagan

Strong men are honest about their desires.

Our capitalistic society ensures there will be competition.

I have told so many of my students that when you're 1% unhappy it’s time to get out. Now it’s time to follow my own advice.
--Perry Belcher

Loving the twitter spam messages promoting worthless MLM and easy money systems. Whatever happened to hard work and a killer product?
--Mitchell Harper

Everybody says my website is a little like McDonald's...it may not be healthy for you, but everyone likes it.
--Perez Hilton

The way we manage her brand is plan it out like a lawyer would create a case plan, then follow that plan.
--Paris Hilton Inc. Movie

Living with a woman is like working backstage.
--Ray Croc biography

If you want to conduct an orchestra, you must turn your back on the crowd.

I work with many CEO's and celebrities and one common trait among these patients is they all imagined themselves attaining success before realizing their goals.
--Excerpt from a self-hypnosis book

Success leaves clues. Study people you admire or want to be like.
--Tony Robbins

If merely looking up past financial data would tell you what the future holds, the Forbes 400 would consist of librarians.
--Warren Buffet 2008 shareholders letter

Labels: Personal, Quotes

*Don't worry, this isn't some weird online suicide note. It's just a thought process of what would happen if I were to suddenly die.
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It happens all the time, every day, and has happened billions of times before me, so it's safe to assume that at some point I will die.

If I had my own way, I'd prefer to die when I think it's time (I'm a big fan of assisted suicide in old age). I think:

If I'm 80+ and all of a sudden bed-ridden from whatever cause, I believe it'd be a good time to go. Why slowly die and burden my family and self? Sure I could go on longer, but like a good comedian, I'd like to go out before the audience forces me out.

The same would be true if my life were to be dependant on others for basic functions, or if I am a vegetable. So if that situation arises in the future, I am publicly asserting it's absolutely 100% OK with me to pull that plug! Anything that happens which burdens my family too much...yank it. No question about it.


Just for fun I ran out a thought experiment:

Cause: I'm crossing the street eating an ice cream cone when BAM I get hit by a bus. Dead.

Effect: Here are some of the effects I see happening:

• Family/friends would be sad.


• My blog would continue to exist (wouldn't it be weird to be reading this blog even though I was DEAD)!?! In fact, in a weird way I'd be immortal for the 3 or 4 months my hosting company wouldn't pull down my dedicated server for non-payment. I bet my blog would actually SPIKE in traffic as word gone around you could read a "ghost" blog! I also presume a lot of people would leave R.I.P. comments (along with spam links trying to profit off the traffic...even in death spam would be a problem)!


• There will end up being a lot of pissed of customers at my business. While I don't have much to do with shipping orders etc, they all pass through me. Without me there, I'm sure the business would continue accepting orders for 3-4 months before the hosting company pulls the plug. Unless someone intervened to get all the bills paid and orders sent. No one would actually be charged any money from the business, but they wouldn't get their orders either.

It's obvious that my main concern about dying is the ease to which my family can absorb that hit. I don't want to die, then on top of that have THEM go through the legal work, taxes etc. to clean up my affairs. Now that I think about it, it's actually quite selfish of me NOT to have a plan in place.

Which brings me to the conclusion I need a solid will (or at least a defined set of instructions left with the person with power of attorney over me). I need proper instructions in place to determine what will happen to my physical assets, money and businesses if I die. I'd also like every possible organ and body part harvested and donated quickly as possible (why the hell would I still need them)??

Action to take:
1.) Make a proper set of instructions to execute in the event of my unexpected demise.
2.) Legally give my parents power of attorney over everything I own if I kick the dust.
3.) Properly register as an organ donor. Apparently there's a special registration for this...I personally think EVERYONE should automatically be an organ donor UNLESS they specifically apply NOT to be.

A few years before he died, Benjamin Franklin wrote up his own epitaph which I think is totally badass (this is the original so forgive the weird syntax):

A few people I told about this post thought it was "too much of a downer." Why? Death is such a normal part of life, I see no reason why not to plan in case it happens, or admit that it will inevitably come.

I think Steve Jobs said it best in that famous commencement speech he made:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

Labels: motivation, Personal, Quotes

-John Sibley Butler

Labels: Quotes

I remember reading a Zig Ziglar quote that said, "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily."

That made me laugh out loud!

I used to put all sorts of post-it notes on my bathroom mirror and on my walls but in the last year or so I haven't done that. I've always put little post-its on my computer monitor, but those quickly fade into the background. In fact until I wrote this I forgot I even had one on the monitor AS I TYPE!

Perhaps something I look at for 10+ hours a day isn't the best place for a reminder as it fades into the background so quickly.

About a year ago I read every book I could find on Jerry Seinfeld, and one of the keys to his success was his small, but extremely consistent generation of new comedic content. Everyone interviewed said, "Jerry was the only comic I knew who wrote new material every single day."

There was a passage of him talking about his method (Don't quote this as I'm reciting it from memory):

I take one of those giant year-long calendars and post it on the wall. If I write new material that day, at the end of the day I put a big, red "X" over that day.

He goes on to explain that after you have a long streak of X's marking the last few months, you don't want to break the streak by not writing that day. This way he is motivated to write everyday, and pretty soon it just becomes a natural habit...and I'm sure a lot easier too.

This "Seinfeld Calendar" can easily be applied to any task you want to perform daily.

First order of business: apply it to my life.

Step 1.) Buy a big damn calendar. Office Depot. Check.

Step 2.) Define what I want to put an "X" on each day for. This took longer than expected. I had no idea what I wanted to do everyday! It has to be something you're dead serious about performing EVERY DAY no matter how tired or busy you are.

After jotting down some possibilities I came upon the realization that I'm great at making challenging to-do lists, but can be a bit of a slug trying to complete them. What good is a daily to-do list if not completed daily?

So my personal "X" for the day is if I fully completed my pre-defined to-do list.

I of course append different things to that requirement in my mind like "Did I do valuable work today?" but then things get too subjective. A simple, concrete, singular goal will be best.

So here is the "Seinfeld Calendar" I hung in my room. When I wake up in bed it's the first thing I see.

I put small quotes here and there on the calendar for fun. I started this calendar on June 1st, 2009 and I've done a decent job, but not consistent of knocking out full to-do lists everyday. Out of 26 days so far in June I've missed my goal 8 days. Most of those are weekends (which I still make to-do lists for), but there are several weekdays which are completely inexcusable.

However I'm getting better. Those blank spaces piss me off. They make me think, "What was I possibly doing that in the long run could've been more helpful than completing all my work for the day?"

**Update: 4 Month Update here.

Labels: Productivity, Quotes

After attending a speech on the different ways people raise lots of money for starting businesses, it reminded me of this quote:

--Jaime Lerner

Labels: Quotes

While browsing through the bookstore I stumbled upon a section of books about online business, eCommerce and the like, and just for fun I decided to pickup this book called "Start an Online Business in 10 Days."

With my smug attitude I was secretly thinking how I could (and have) put up fully functioning businesses within HOURS rather than days, and that I was "beyond" this book. However to humor myself I picked it up and thumbed through.

It had all the pretty basic information about what kind of software to use for an online store yadda yadda, but what caught my attention were all the details it had about a lot of small stuff I've never really paid much attention to. For example it had a section on how to format a professional looking email footer, and a section on what information should be on your contact page, and it gave examples of each used in other successful web businesses.

This got me thinking that I could use this beginner's book as an outline to start improving upon my own online ventures. HouseOfRave.com started from scratch from my high school days, and has slowly been pieced together since then. Never have I once taken the time to properly format all these small elements into a professional looking end product, and to this day I still think some of the order flow or HouseOfRave could use drastic minor but very effective changes.

So instead of making a giant to-do list of general improvements I can make, I can read this book front to back while implementing the suggestions as I read! This will take much longer than reading the book first then making a list of improvements, but this way I won't be overwhelmed by a massive and vague to-do list.

So this begineers book went from me scoffing at it, to me paying $19.99 for it and using it to re-vamp my sites.

I remember reading a quote (probably from TheKirkReport where I steal all my good quotes from):

"You can learn new things at any time in your life if you're willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you."
--Barbara Sher


P.S. Wow, I can make these posts so much faster when I don't make accompanying pictures.

Labels: eCommerce, Quotes

I like to put quotes around my room. I mainly use them to motivate myself when I'm slacking.
The quotes I enjoy are simple, concise and evoke a passion for working hard or show the harsh realities of NOT working hard. Anytime I see a quote to my liking, I write it in my quotes section on Microsoft OneNote. Usually my main source of quality quotes comes from random posts on TheKirkReport.com, from which I regularly steal them.

Once I put a quote up, it helps to motivate for a while, but then quickly starts fading into the background. I then begin to stop noticing it when I walk in my room. For this reason, I'm constantly adding new ones or moving them around.

Here are some of my favorite quotes for whichever reasons, and some of the places I put them around my room:
------------------

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter if you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better be running."

"It is a common oversight in people not to make provision for the bad times while they are experiencing good times."
--Machiavelli

Labels: Quotes

Almost 2006, so it's time to start setting goals. I made a poster board with goals and a sort of calendar to make sure I work towards those goals every month. Goals rarely get accomplished unless they are constantly kept track of.

I've also bought a giant cork board to thumb-tack inspirational articles right in front of my desk. I'll start putting up quotes, articles, pictures or anything that inspires me to work harder.

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I think a great financial move I've made is splitting my money into separate accounts. It really shows how much money I have for what purpose. I had too much cash sitting in my extremely low-yield permanent savings account (aka "No Risk" account), so I maxed my Roth IRA for the year by adding $2,000 to it, and threw $1,000 into an EmigrantDirect savings account.

I also recently opened up a 2nd Spending Account specifically for the holidays and larger purchases. I noticed every holiday season is much more expensive than other months, so I've been stashing a little money each week for a couple of months and built up around $800 for gifts and other holiday expenses.

It makes me feel good that I can buy gifts for family and friends without worrying about prices.

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The second scooter I bought has recently been fully registered and is now actually legal to drive. Almost immediately after I bought it, I got a ticket for driving with: No insurance, No inspection and No registration.

I've also got two parking tickets, each $50 a piece. In relation, it takes me $3 to fill an entire tank of gas.

I've also been yelled at several times for cutting through standing traffic. One cop said I was a "Traffic Unit" like everyone else and couldn't go through just because I could. I disagree. I'm not sure what kind of ticket I can get for moving through a line of traffic, but I'm willing to find out.

Despite $700+ extra dollars of additional costs (Not counting helmet, gloves etc), I have been able to easily absorb these costs thanks to my "Bills Account."

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Visit GoDaddy.com and see if yourname.com is available. If yes, buy it. I don't know why, but it just seems a good idea. It costs $9 or less per year. NevilleMedhora.com redirects to my original webpage, http://www.neville1.com/. Having a website throughout the years has really helped me in many ways.

Labels: Financial, Goals, Quotes

Labels: Goals, Quotes

This is my new dry erase board with a push-pin section. I keep a few inspirational Post-It's right above my desk. My favorite is:

"Dig the well before you're thirsty"

I like the Post-It note quotes because they draw more attention than the dry-erase writing.
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My House Of Rave goals were mostly met, although some of the stipulations changed. My main concern is finding a better customer service system. I currently use a basic webmail program for email, and an answering machine through Vonage. This system doesn't allow me to organize emails or easily track problem resolutions. I'm THIS close to signing up for an exchange server. This will allow me to use an Outlook interface, but from any computer in the world.

I finally added some custom templates which allowed me to integrate the frame of the main page onto every page, including the shopping cart and checkout pages. This makes the whole site look much more congruent.

---------------------------------

I recently checked the webstats for Neville1.com, and found it gets 500+ unique page views a day. I was surprised to find that it wasn't all traffic from NevBlog, but from the "Wallpapers" section under "Stuff"

When someone types in "The Godfather" into Google Image Search, one of the first results is a wallpaper on Neville1. Also, the image searches for "Kawasaki", "Yamaha R1" and "Henry Ford" also bring in several thousand visits per month.

I decided to test what would happen if I put an Adsense banner on the Wallpapers page about 4 days ago. So far it's only made about $0.45 a day. Ehh.

--------------------------------------------
I spoke about the change in libraries too soon. After that post, the PCL library added some outside tables for the coffee shop inside. I'm curious how much money the university gets from the coffee shop.

Labels: Quotes

I went to a wedding in Houston this weekend. There I met a friend who recently bought a Mercedes S55 AMG and a Mercedes SL600 (you read right: six hundred). Together these two cars cost well over $200,000.

I was tossed the keys to the S55 AMG and I played around in it.

I had been drinking, so the most I did was rev it up. There's a very excited Neville inside that car:

As I came back to Austin on Sunday night, I posted up some quotes in my room. The wall to the left of my desk is now my "Motivation Wall"

There are also several quotes posted around random areas of my room, like near my mirror:

My favorite short quote on there is:

"I'm a great believer in luck,
and I find the harder I work,
the more I have of it"
--Thomas Jefferson


My favorite long quote on there is:

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter if you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better be running."
--Taken from TheKirkReport.

-Nev

Labels: Personal, Quotes

After talking to a couple wannabe entrepreneurs last week, I noticed some extremely strong misconceptions about starting new businesses and entrepreneurship in general.

One phrase that pretty much sums up entrepreneurship:

"It's not the idea, it's the jockey"

To prove this point. I am going to give away an almost sure-fire way to get rich:

---------
As China is currently undergoing its own industrial revolution, simply replicate some of the services offered in the fully developed western countries. Start large chains of dry cleaners, gas stations, coffee shops, law firms, tax firms, shipping centers etc. and you will become filthy rich.
---------

There, I just gave away a very feasible idea to literally become a billionaire. But who will act on it?

The person that has the courage to relocate to China and hurdle over the untold amount of obstacles is worth a billion dollars. NOT THE IDEA.

I told all my friends about my first online business idea, but I was the only one who acted on it. The idea wasn't exactly unique, I just had the audacity to carry it out. After the business became lucrative, everyone wanted to be a part of it.

As Gandhi said, "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

If you're not the type of person who wants to jump all the hurdles and face the uncertainty of opening your own business, who cares! A franchise can offer great potential along with a tried-and-proven method to running a business already backing you. I suggest you check out Dane Carlson's Business Opportunities Weblog for tons of great franchise ideas and articles about entrepreneurship.

So next time you hear someone tell you about a new idea, make your judgement based 10% on the idea and 90% on the person carrying it out.

Labels: business ideas, Quotes

I don't like the phrase "It takes money to make money"

If this were the case, no one would ever obtain wealth. Someone who cannot make money without money, probably can't make money with money either.

When you have money, you simply have a larger variety of money-making avenues to choose from. I'd like to revise the quote to say: "It's easier to make money with money"

When you are strapped for cash you simply have to be more creative to make your money!

Labels: Quotes

I'd like to share a quote I recently heard:

"I've been miserable when poor, and I've been miserable when rich. Let me tell ya, it's a hell of a lot better being miserable when rich."

--Dave Liniger, Founder of RE/MAX

Labels: Quotes

This blog will be dedicated to tracking my financial progress. Today I turn 22, let's see how far I can financially advance by the time I am 23.

Labels: Blogging, business ideas, eCommerce, Events, Financial, Goals, house of rave, Housing, Learning, Links, Meeting CEO's, Money Experiments, Personal, Productivity, Quotes, Transportation