This one had me laughing so hard I was crying...

Even CEO Can't Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business

We've heard a million times how rough the situation in Africa is.  You've probably thought to yourself "What can I do?"  Here's a chance to do something very, very cool. 

Ari Zainuddin, my good friend and fellow b-school classmate, is taking a month this summer to help out in an orphanage in Nairobi.  He'd love your help.  I've included his e-mail below.  If you're interested in being a part of what he's doing please e-mail him at Ari.Zainuddin at genmills dot com. 

*********

Dear friends and colleagues,
This summer, for the month of July, my friend Vanan and I shall be in
Nairobi, Kenya, volunteering at an orphanage for children who have lost
their parents to HIV/AIDS and children who have been abused by their
parents. We shall be assisting with the daily running of the orphanage -
cleaning, bathing children, cooking, teaching school lessons, playing with
the children and helping them with their homework. For more information on
this programme, please visit
***http://www.volunteer.org.nz/kenya/*<http://www.volunteer.org.nz/kenya/>.


We have decided to take a short sabbatical and give back as much as possible
to those who potentially need it the most.

We hope for this to be a life-changing experience, not only for us, but also
for those for whom we care, and those who could come along with us on this
journey.* We would like to ask for your help.*

We would highly appreciate your help with fundraising money for the
orphanage. We are working with our individual firms to get a 'matching' of
the funds we raise to go towards the schools within the orphanage, which in
turn would double your contributions. In exchange for your donations, we
will be having two separate occasions of a Malaysian Open House Party. This
way, you get to enjoy a few somewhat exotic Malaysian dishes while spending
time with friends, and hopefully pass along a contribution to us.

*Where does your contribution go?*
- A portion will go towards paying for our programmes
- The majority of your contributions go toward the up-keep of the orphanage,
and the total potential 'matching' by our firms that also go directly to the
orphanage

- We are working on making your contributions tax-deductible

*When will we get together?*
- An Evite with details will be sent shortly for Saturday, May 19th and
Saturday, June 2nd
- The Open Houses will be from 2.00-8.00pm on each day, so feel free to stop
by at any time
- You are obviously invited to attend both, but the primary reason we are
having two parties is to make sure you can fit at least one into your busy
schedules

Anything you give would be highly appreciated. We look forward to seeing you
very soon. Cheers, and have a great day.

*Ari Zainuddin *

WOW.  wow.  wow.  wow.

What does $456 billion buy?

So sad.  And obnoxious.  And arrogant.

OK, I'll stop now...

Will follow up on this later but wanted to put a place holder out there...

#1 - Take as much risk as you can as early as you can

#2 - Work with really smart people...who have integrity

#3 - Learn from the successes and mistakes of past entrepreneurs (Founders at Work, Venture Voice, Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders)

#4 - Build your network

#5 - Follow your passion

Mom's Day is coming up and millions of people are going to send Mom something as a gift.  Stuck on what to give Mom?

Try this:

Kiva gift certificates

or

World Vision gifts

I just bought my Mom a goat for Mother's Day. 

:)

Anyone here take classes at Yoga Works in LA?  Would love to hear your suggestions for good teachers to check out there.  Thanks!

Machine Means End To Sleepless Nights

In the book Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill tells a story of Henry Ford who had a little box on his desk with a bunch of buttons. At any given time he could press one of the buttons and summon an expert who could answer almost any question he could possibly ask. This probably helps to explain why Ford became one of the richest men who ever lived.

How would you like to have one of those boxes?

I'm about to show you how.

Wait a minute you're saying, I have the Internet and Google. Don't I already have one of those boxes.

Nope.

First of all, search sucks. I mean, it's a lot better than not having search but it's a far cry from the vision of "ask the machine a question and get an answer" that many people have been imagining for decades. But there is another way...here's how to have your own personal research army without spending a dime.

#1 - Realize that online message boards are a virtual treasure trove of data and advice. With all the hype about social networking in the last few years message boards have taken the role of red-headed step-children on the Web. That's a shame because for a lot of reasons, message boards are much better ways of getting useful data than just about anything else out there.

#2 - Figure out which message boards are most relevant to the things you need to learn about to make your life better. This will require a little bit of an investment of your time but it's well worth it. I've included the message boards that I frequent at the end of this post as a starting point. You can also check out places like BigBoards or directories for message board software like vBulletin find message boards relevant to your specific interests.

#3 - Wait for a question to roll into your brain. For the purposes of this example let's use a recent question that I had which was "What domain name should we use for our new company?" I could spend hours/days/weeks brainstorming this, asking people, searching registrars, etc. Instead I craft a paragraph or two on what I'm looking for and put it out on some message boards where smart people hang out.  I got some great answers and more importantly, someone pointing me to a great site called pickydomains.com that has produced a ton of good domain name suggestions for us.

#4 - Check the box "Notify me when there are replies." This is an important step especially considering you might be posting dozen of questions per week. The last thing you want to do is chew up valuable time continually checking these forums to see if a response was posted. By checking this box you'll receive an e-mail notification when someone responds. Most message boards have it set up so that you actually see the response in your e-mail so you don't even necessarily need to go back to the site (particularly useful if you're checking e-mail from a Blackberry/Treo/etc.).

That's it. The quality of your responses will vary depending upon which boards you posted and how you word your question. However with time you'll get a better sense of the best places to post and how to post effectively. The best part about all this is that once you get a system in place you'll be able to find excellent answers to questions with a minimal investment of time. I use this for all sorts of stuff ranging from nutrition to Blackberry issues to technology to personal development.

One last note. Some of you might think that this is a bit of a selfish way to use the Web. After all, isn't this a lot of taking with no giving? I disagree. There are lots of people out there (myself included) who genuinely enjoy answering questions in their given domains of expertise. For these people it's actually a treat to help you answer your questions and by posting your questions you're helping to boost the activity of the community. As a person who has managed several discussion communities I can say that getting people to post questions is one of the most important things that helps to make a community successful.

To get you started I've posted a list of my favorite discussion forums below along with the username I use to post on them so you can get a sense of some of the questions I ask on these forums. Best of luck with this method. I think you'll find it extremely powerful! (P.S. If you happen to know of other great discussion boards that I've missed please post them in the comments!)

General Message Boards

Steve Pavlina (jbischke)
Tony Robbins (JPB)
Yahoo Answers
Yedda (jbischke)
Answer Bag (jbischke)

Health/Nutrition

VeggieBoards.com (JPB)

Technology

Experts Exchange (jpb123)
Mark Minasi's Forum (jbischke)
PCMech (jbischke)
Anandech (jbischke)
Official Mac Forums

Business

Site Point (jbischke)
Digital Point (jbischke)
LinkedIn Answers

Blackberry

BlackberryForums (jbischke)
blackberryforums.pinstack.com (jbischke)

iPod/Podcasting

iPod Lounge
Podcast Alley