NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Quotes

Improving By Being a Beginner

by

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.

Favorite Quotes

by

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

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
–Thomas Jefferson
(Taken from How to Be An Expert)

“I never saw a pessimistic general win a battle.”
–General Dwight David Eisenhower

“A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner”

“When written in Chinese, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters – one represents danger and one represents opportunity.”
–John F. Kennedy

“The wise person has long ears and a short tongue “

“If Columbus had turned back, no one would have blamed him. Of course, no one would have remembered him either”

“…..it doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you almost get it right. No one is going to know or care about your failures, and either should you. All you have to do is learn from them and those around you because…All that matters in business is that you get it right once. Then everyone can tell you how lucky you are.”
–Mark Cuban

“If you think your actions are too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in a bed with a mosquito. “

“The only man who never makes a mistake is the one who never does anything.”
–Theodore Roosevelt

“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”
–Barry LePatner

“Good things come to those who wait. Better things come to those who try.”

“Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty.”

“If we do not discipline ourselves the world will do it for us.”
–William Feather

2006 Goal Setting, Other Stuff

by

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.

—————————————-

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.

—————————————-

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.”

—————————————-

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, https://www.neville1.com/. Having a website throughout the years has really helped me in many ways.

Quotes, HoR, The Godfather, Scarabeo

by

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.
———————————

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.

The local coffee shops must hate this new cafe!
———————————————
After visiting the Aprilia dealership, I found a few leads for used Aprilia Scarabeo 50 scooters. This is the one I’m hoping to get a deal on:

A brand new one runs $2,700 + tax, title & insurance = $3,400
The time I spend waiting for and riding the bus is getting ridiculous, especially since I live so close to campus. Parking in Downtown is also crazy during the day, so a scooter would be especially helpful.
——————————————–
One business venture under a non-disclosure agreement is really coming together now. The original creator of the business and I will hopefully have it up and running within the next month. Exciting stuff!

Inspiration and a Mercedes

by

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

Billion Dollar Ideas Are WORTHLESS

by

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.

Money to Make Money?

by

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!

Dave Liniger Quote

by

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

First Post

by

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.