Brainstorming for Ideas : Boomerang your Way to the Best Possible Solutions
October 31, 2008
Having a problem at work? BoomerangThink your way to a solution!
Endless meetings…stalled plans…unresolved issues…poorly recycled ideas. These are just a few of the challenges prevalent in today’s workplace. If you’re tired of getting nothing but blank faces when you ask for solutions to your company’s tough issues and want to go beyond ideas that are nothing more than a tweak of an old process, then it’s time for you and your organization to start thinking in new ways.
Unfortunately, the way many people think today rarely allows employees to unlock the limitless potential of their minds. Too often, they seem to be on autopilot, just providing a knee-jerk response to any problem that may arise. Read more
Brain Trust: 100 Ivy League Business & Entrepreneurship Courses You Can Take for Free
October 26, 2008
Just because you don’t have the deep pockets or stellar grades it takes to get into top tier schools doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of the same resources these establishments offer. Through open courseware programs, you can access course materials from a wide range of top universities. Whether you decide to take these courses on your own time or just skim through the information, we’ve compiled a list of 100 places to start looking for great business and entrepreneurship information.
Leadership
These courses can help you be a better leader by teaching you important skills like working as a team, ethics, and how to work with a diverse group of people. Read more
80 How-To Sites Worth Bookmarking
July 9, 2008
Sitting on my dining room table, I currently have half a dozen projects in various states of doneness. Some involve vivisected computer parts, others will eventually be wearable and a few are just cool things I’ve ran across on the internet. I like doing things myself — I think the DIY bug is one of the best communicable diseases in the lifehack community.
These eighty sites are the places I turn to when I’m trying to figure out how to accomplish any particular goal. Any time I’m facing a new project, I start searching for how-tos that will help me figure out how other people did similar things and how likely I am to finish the project with all ten fingers still intact. I’ve broken them up into a few different categories, just to help you narrow down what you might be looking for. Some are simply archives full of tutorials. Some are blogs that publish how-tos fairly regularly. Some are just great resource sites. But they all have provided me with the information necessary to carry through on a project.
Every How-To They Can Get Their Hands On
These ten sites are more than happy to host any how-to around. I’ve seen everything from computer hardware hacks to instructions for brewing beer on these sites. This is the place to start — you can narrow down your search as you get a better idea of your project.
- Make Magazine’s Blog
- Instructables
- How Stuff Works
- Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
- wikiHow
- flickr
- Lifehacker
- Popular Mechanics
- DIY Happy
- Expert Village
Become a Lifestyle Entrepreneur: Complete Guide and 40+ Resources
April 9, 2008
If you are — or would like to be — an entrepreneur, yet you’d be happy to earn enough to live the life you want rather than becoming filthy rich, lifestyle entrepreneurship might be a good fit for you.
Lifestyle entrepreneurs will generally base their ventures around time minimalism, or something they love, even if there are more profitable (but more time-consuming, or less interesting) options available.
The goal of a lifestyle entrepreneur is not to amass a huge fortune, but instead, to achieve certain definable goals and, beyond that point, to ensure business does not interfere too much with the enjoyment of those goals.
In this article, I’ll be outlining the primary steps to becoming a lifestyle entrepreneur, followed by 40+ educational and practical resources you can use to get started.
The 3 types of lifestyle entrepreneur
Time minimalists. This method is all about taking much of the time commitments out of owning a business and earning an income. This is usually achieved through elimination, outsourcing, the 80/20 principle, simplicity and automation, or through focusing on ’set it and forget it’ products, like eBooks or drop-shipped products.
Example: Doug Price, who created ProSoundEffects.com. His PPC advertised site sells audio libraries at several hundred dollars a pop and earns over $10,000 a month with under two-hours of maintenance work each week. The business allows Doug to spend plenty of time pursuing his two primary passions: music and travel.
Nomadic entrepreneurs. While the nomadic lifestyle entrepreneur isn’t necessarily working less than anyone else, the nomad’s number 1 aim is freedom of location: an anywhere work style. Work should enable travel, not confine it to one weekend each year.
