By Amanda Morrall
Consider this your daily dose of inspiration to cut through the economic gloom.
1) Dare, Dream, Do
Harvard Business Review blogger Whitney Johnson, author of Dare, Dream, Do, in a Q&A with the Daily Muse, talks about her path to success, having the confidence and faith to follow your dreams and the importance of finding your own way in life.
2) Don't die with regret
Life coach and entrepreneur Marie Forleo, in an interview with Mastin Kipp, the inspirational internet sensation behind thedaily.com discusses the circuitous route to finding your passion, the benefits of failure, the power of intuition and having faith. A bit cheesy in places but some valuable advice to fuel your dreams.
3) Steve Jobs on how to live before you die
I've seen and read excerpts of this famed commencement speech by the late great Steve Jobs before, but watching it in full is a moving experience indeed. It is sure to get you firing on all creative and inspirational cylinders. His speech is abundant with great insights, wisdoms and reflections. One of them that resonated was this idea that you can't know where you're going but you need to trust that even the blunders will set you on the path and serve you. He says you can't connect the dots looking forward.
"You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
4) Pen the perfect plan
If none of the above hasn't incentivised you, then perhaps a free $30,000 might do it. I'm not normally one to be captured by ads but ANZ's $30K competition for budding start-ups caught my eye this morning. The loot is being offered to whomever crafts the best business plan. Details are available here. Deadline is June 26th. Go for gold.
5) Make yourself visible
I was astonished to discover, via Gareth Vaughan's story yesterday announcing another carrot for entrepreneurs offered by Westpac and MYOB (free web development and hosting for one year), that only one-third of New Zealand businesses have a website. That was on the heels of learning that only 1/10 businesses have a back-up plan in the event of a crisis.
When you follow that dream, make sure you have all your ducks in a row, and crucially a presence on the internet where all businesses is headed.
To read other Take Fives by Amanda Morrall click here. You can also follow Amanda on Twitter@amandamorrall
1 Comments
Good last point there Amanda, everybody here who runs a small business and who doesn't have a website (there will be a few) should check out MYOB's Atlas offering.
I've already had a play with it and confirm that a) yes you can get a free website created and running incredibly quickly, b) it really does what it says on the tin, i.e powerful web-builder, transactionally functional and easy to use and c) no there really don't seem to be any hooks.
Free website builder, 12 months free domain name and business email address with no contract or catches? Astonishing.
Jump on it before all the cool domain names get snaffled.
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