— Some advice from Jeff Bezos by Jason Fried of 37signals
(via bijan)
—
Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Bitcoin: Monetarists Anonymous | The Economist
(via fred-wilson)
Perhaps the biggest misconception about Silicon Valley is that technology companies create value by simply building a product and letting users come to it. It’s known as the “If you build it, they will come” hypothesis. Instead, what was true then is true now: the engine of real growth in any company is the sales team.
At first glance, it seems odd. Isn’t viral growth a sure sign of value? Let’s take a look. The most visible companies that can be sad to have viral growth (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) also generate the least revenue per user. Linkedin, on the other hand, generates roughly $1.30 per user per hour. It doesn’t seem much, but it dwarfs Facebook’s ¢6.2 per user per hour. Linkedin gives great importance to its sales teams, with some salesmen earning close to $400,000.
The take-away point? If you want to build a solid business, have an aggressive sales strategy. It can help you scale and distribute your product, whether you’re in technology or not.
Abrar
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
In late 2011, I designed iHusky.org, an online platform aimed at connecting Sheldon High School students outside of the classroom. Initially, iHusky.org only allowed students to ask questions and share notes with their classmates regarding homework assignments or upcoming quizzes and tests. Since then, iHusky.org has expanded to keep students updated on campus events and club news. Over the course of two months, iHusky.org attracted over 100 new members. In the 2012-2013 school year, I intend to expand the services of iHusky.org to allow students to campaigns, organize study groups, and provide students an opportunity to contribute their thoughts and ideas. In order to do so, our goal is to give iHusky.org a more permanent position in not only academic but after-school life at Sheldon High School. I also intend to make iHusky.org a course offered at Sheldon High School. The iHusky.org course is designed to provide project members experience in core entrepreneurship skills necessary to be successful in the work force. The objective of the course is to engage the potential of project members and enhance the high school experience. Most importantly, the course addresses a critical challenge facing education today: applying students’ academic knowledge in a practical context. The class taps into the creativity and curiosity of students in order to build a socially beneficial product.
Amaan
For all of its shortcomings, there is one thing aspiring entrepreneurs can learn from academia: how to operate on a daily basis. Although the work itself may be mundane and irrelevant, school forces structure, timeliness and stamina.
Structure
Perhaps the greatest benefit of school is starting your day early. Having class time, study time, gym time and kick-it time scheduled help create a rhythm to life. Routinize your day so you don’t waste your time figuring out what to do while you’re supposed to be doing it.
Timeliness
Whether or not you are ready, the test takes place or the project is due. Just as you scrapped to meet project deadlines, scrap to meet your own deadlines. Being timely in your actions is a sure sign of progress.
Stamina
Academia is a marathon. The final grade you got was usually a couple of months in the making. The GPA you accumulated was cumulative of four years of grades. School is structured on a long-term basis. Similarly, take a long view of whatever you are doing after it. Day after day, focus on the big picture and pace yourself.
Abrar
I’ll be honest. I’ve used Square’s services just once in my life. And I’m not much of a patron to Starbucks. But the recently announced deal between the payments startup and the coffee giant has me quite intrigued about the future of electronic transactions. From what has been reported in the media, the terms of the deal are such: Starbucks will invest $25M in Square, who will start processing transactions via its mobile app at 7,000 Starbucks locations by this fall. To boot, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will be joining Square’s board.
Although it’s quite obvious that Square wanted to partner with a company of Starbucks’ brand and stature for greater distribution, scale, and growth, there are questions as to why Starbucks would want to partner in return with Square. It’s a publicly-traded company (NASDAQ:SBUX) that already has thousands of stores with well-established points of sale and seems to be going along fine with its very own mobile payment app. In addition, there are other players in the e-payments market (Google Wallet, for one) that would love to have Starbucks’ business. So, why the need for this particular deal?
Howard Schultz is well-known as one of America’s most prolific CEOs. What many don’t know about Schultz is that he’s the founder of a VC firm with a portfolio that boasts the likes of Groupon and Pinkberry as investments. It’s hard to imagine a businessman like Schultz agreeing to a deal with Square if Starbucks weren’t enjoying a much, much reduced fee rate than the 2.75% Square normally charges per transaction. It doesn’t hurt that adopting Square’s services may help with improving customer ease and experience. It signals that Starbucks is attuned to its customer’s changing preferences regarding details as simple yet crucial as how they pay for their overpriced cups of Iced Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha.
This deal also signals to merchants both large and small that wallet-less transactions are the way of the future. Debarring any fraud-related hiccups, it’s not difficult to imagine national fast-food chains and supermarkets starting to adopt some form of mobile payments en masse within the next two to three years. What’s more? Devices that looked like bricks less than two decades ago are now skinny-jeans friendly and can do more than the computers NASA used to put Neil Armstrong on the moon. And who knows where this could go? Imagine your license, passport and business card…all on your phone and electronically transferable. Imagine cashiers, cops and chefs knowing who you are…before knowing who you are. Sure, it’s scary and paranoia-inducing. But aren’t those the very sentiments that sometimes distinguish the future from what is and what has been?
Ahmed
(Source: youtube.com)
Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal’s (rh) advice to his son on his wedding day:
Dear son, you will not attain good fortune in your home except by 10...
