F-Light by Paul Coudamy

F-Light by Paul Coudamy:

French designer Paul Coudamy has sent us images of his F-Light project, a ceiling/light made of discarded Airbus windows.

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Description from the designer:

After having spent 20 years flying at 1000 km/h 10 km high above the ground, liners at the end of their life-cycle are left rusting at the far end of airport runways. These marvels of engineering with their ultra functional curves resulting from uncompromising technical research, are diverted from their original function in order to be integrated in our daily lives, thus offering them a second life.

The F-Light project is a diversion of the inner walls and windows of an Airbus 300. Its curves, windows and silvery isolation recycle the vocabulary of aeronautics to transform it into an unusual and functional light structure.

These walls are fitted together to create a « luminous ceiling » forming a shell in levitation. This dome delineates the space and offers a special intimacy beneath it. The system can be adjusted and offers unlimited variations : the panels can be put together in a row to suit the desired dimension.

The windows lighting offers circles of light which stand out against the panels and diffuse the light on the whole surface. A second indirect lighting set on the structure is reflected by the original isolating silvery material and enhances the feeling of levitation of F-Light.

Visit Paul Coudamy’s website – here.

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8 Affordable Topcoats for Power Meetings in the Winter

8 Affordable Topcoats for Power Meetings in the Winter:

Viral Sensation: How To Trick People Into Thinking You're Rich

Viral Sensation: How To Trick People Into Thinking You're Rich:

Spotted: Life Files

6 More Priceless Lessons You Can Learn From My First Year of Blogging

6 More Priceless Lessons You Can Learn From My First Year of Blogging:

As we rolled into 2012, my main blog Pocket Changed turned one year old. (No, there wasn’t a party or even a solitary candle on a cupcake.)

In honor of the first year, I looked back at 14 Lessons I Learned From Blogging, but a few weeks later I’ve realized there are even more lessons that I didn’t cover in that post that shouldn’t go unshared.

This post will add six more key lessons and delve deeper into the what you can learn from the last 13 months I’ve spent blogging.

Let’s jump right in.

1. If you genuinely help others, they will help you.

This lesson was brought up by Jeffrey Trull in the comments of the previous post and it is definitely true. When you are just getting started with your blog it is easy to publish something that you think is sliced bread reincarnate, hop up on your social media soapbox, and pray that people will start to listen.

Instead what you should be doing is reaching out to other bloggers and creating connections based on things you do for them, while expecting nothing in return. Feature them in your content like this. Write guest posts for them that are extremely targeted to their audience. Interview them on your site and get their name in front of more people.

Help others BEFORE you ask for something from them. They will be more likely to return the favor.

2. Don’t wait for the right moment to start.

If you are waiting for the right time to start a blog, that day is today. Almost every blogger that I’ve talked to has mentioned that they wish they had started sooner. Yes, you need a proper launch plan, a specific unique selling proposition (see #4), and energy to dedicate to it, but don’t waste too much time waiting and “learning” (i.e. just reading blog posts all day).

Benny Hsu pointed this out in the comments of my first 14 lessons post. He said, “Unless you’ve blogged for a long time before, your new blog isn’t going to be perfect at the beginning. Just start posting and improve along the way.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

3. Participate in mastermind or social media peer groups.

The power of mastermind groups is not just in connections you make with your fellow peers. Accountability is the biggest reason you should find a mastermind group. Get on a Skype call a few times a month with 2 or 3 likeminded people that you get along with and push each other to accomplish more than you could on your own. (If you need more help with accountability, check out action #21 in this post.)

Another option is a closed social media peer group. This is a group of people (could be up to 50+) that are all sharing ideas and asking opinions of each other on a platform such as a private Facebook group or a closed LinkedIn group. This is one way for you to more passively have a closed network to bounce ideas off of if you don’t have a mastermind group and can also be used as a test ground to find the right 2 or 3 people to create a mastermind group with.

4. Laser focus your USP and keep repeating it.

People should know exactly why your site exists and they should be able to find that answer all over the place. They shouldn’t need to go find the first post in your archives or wade through page after page until they find a manifesto post. Link to content that directly explains your unique selling proposition all the time.

Even if you think your USP is clear from the name of your brand or in the tagline, spell it out in:

• the sidebar


• the about page


• the start here page


• a welcome video


• the footer


• your content

You might think that you are overdoing it, but your USP needs to be clear and concise to the people that are visiting your blog for the first time. Those are the people that you are creating all those bulleted items above for anyway.

If you are a regular reader of Think Traffic, when was the last time you looked at our about page? (Maybe the first time you visited?) Target those landing pages towards non-regular readers. Completely explain what your site is about on those pages (and don’t just talk about yourself).

5. Don’t waste too much time trying to get big wins.

It is fun to read about people’s content getting syndicated by Gizmodo and their site getting flooded by 42,000 visits, but luck isn’t the main contributor to “going viral” like Steve Kamb did in that situation. He had a breakthrough because he had been working his ass off for years on his blog, wrote an amazingly informative and entertaining post, and his audience did the rest.

If you do get a big break or something you make goes viral, most of the time it will happen without much help from you (after creating it of course). I’m not saying that you shouldn’t share what you put up online, but you shouldn’t keep looking for a huge site to pick up your content or for someone popular in your niche to tweet your work.

Focus instead on continual forward progress. Just focus on making today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today. Then perhaps someday you’ll get a “big break” when you weren’t even trying to anymore.

6. Make everything you post insanely useful & purposeful

While this goes a bit contrary to a theory Joel Runyon wrote about on here last month, making each and every piece of content you publish insanely useful goes a long way. Instead of publishing just to publish (which can lead people to unsubscribe if what you create is lackluster), slow down the frequency at which you put out content.

“Won’t that mean less chances for people to come to my site, share my content, and subscribe?” Perhaps, but the key to publishing less often is to put in as much, if not more, time as you were before into creating content. This will lead to you spending two to three times more effort on a single piece that you publish. This almost guarantees that it is going to be better, more in-depth, and worth sharing.

Try it for a week or two and see what kind of difference it makes.

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If you’ve been blogging for over a year, what are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far?

I’d love to hear some of them in the comments below.

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10 Tips for Keeping Your Products Lean

10 Tips for Keeping Your Products Lean:

You have the next great innovation of the 21^st century to unseat Google. Problem is, you don’t have all the cash reserves Google does. Hmm, what to do? Here are some tips for launching what the lean evangelists of the world refer to as a Minimum Viable Product, or “MVP”.

Homework

1. Define yourself: Not a 20-page business plan. Who is going to read that? Will it even apply two weeks into development? Debatable. Instead, define your business in the existing landscape. Are you disrupting the industry with a new and better approach? (Hint: you should be.) Who exactly can benefit from your solution? If it’s a new product or service, make sure there is demand. A great product that no one wants is a waste of your time and money. Mixergy just offered a compelling piece on this very topic.

2. Existing solutions: Everyone thinks they’re inventing something that doesn’t exist. Possible, but not likely. Do some analysis. See what’s out there, even if remotely in the same vein. Sign up for their services. Learn what works and what doesn’t. The more you can bring to the table, the less time you’ll spend refining during design and development, which will be more costly at that stage to rethink.

3. Research existing tech: Chances are, whatever your idea is, there are pieces of supporting software floating around the interwebs that you can leverage and integrate, at least for now (a fully custom re-arch in 2 years is another story, but you’re not there yet). And some of them are likely to be open source, aka free! This research will, hopefully, give the digital vendor you partner with, a running start.

Budgeting and Vendor Selection

4. Use your cash: Your bank account is not likely to be bottomless. If it is, stop reading this, go buy a surfboard and relax. For the rest of us, the first piece of the puzzle is determining what you can afford. Angels and VCs should not be a consideration at this stage, nor should substantial bank loans. Budget for what you (and your partners) have at your disposal.

5. Selecting the right digital partner – step 1: Find an agency that specializes in working with startups (they exist). Ask them about their typical project costs. If their average client’s budget is 10 times yours, they’re probably not the right size agency for you.

6. Selecting the right digital partner – step 2: Make sure agency you select is accustomed to helping clients vet out the technology vision to support their business plans without charging you consulting fees for planning and exploration. Most firms will blindly offer a ballpark estimate. The gems will spend time analyzing your needs, helping you craft the solution that fits and then offering a proposal.

Perfect Schmerfect

7. Start simple: The lure of scope creep is tough to escape. It’s like when you go car shopping. You start out modest, looking at the base model Toyota Carolla. One week later you’re in the Audi dealership trying to figure out if their fully-loaded A8 will do the job. Included features that are absolutely core to your offering and focus on launching only those. An alpha, beta, v1.0, whatever, should be “just enough”. But whatever you do launch, make sure it’s complete. You want 3 features that work, not 10 features that are half-assed.

8. Soft launch: Do not make the mistake of shouting to the world about your newly minted product with press releases and Facebook fan page announcements. It’s in beta because it’s not ready for hundreds or thousands to begin using it. Hold off on the article in TechCrunch until you can handle that spotlight. Once your audience gives you a thumbs down it will be difficult to recover. Tip-toe for now. Form a line and make people sign up for an invite, which may even help to build the sense of anticipation.

9. Listening & trying: If you followed tip #8, you told only a select few about your product. Hopefully you were humble enough to give this version away for free and ask for feedback, in exchange. This is the hard part. You have to listen to the commentary with one, good ear. Steve Jobs listened with neither, but you’re not Steve Jobs, right? You built your product with a vision and certain demographic in mind. Stay true to this. Make it irreplaceable for that group. Don’t try to cater to everyone or no one will love it. Then once you have an idea of changes you need to make, test out variations and see which works better and run with it.

10. Just ship already: The theme here is to disregard your fears about being perfect. The most successful innovators are exceptional about putting their ego aside and having the balls to ship something to market. They listen and tweak and change course until they find their sweet spot. If you wait until it’s “perfect” it’ll either never happen or someone else will beat you to it.

Jay Melone is the CEO of DigitalXBridge (aka DXB). DXB is a digital agency offering web & mobile design and development, branding and strategy/consulting for all things web.

An Ordinary Parking Garage Turned Extraordinary

An Ordinary Parking Garage Turned Extraordinary:

Who knew parking could be so fun? Or so “kaleidoscopy.” (Okay, we made that word up, but it seemed fitting). If we’d only known what the future of parking would hold we may not have endured such white-knuckled parallel parking snafus during Drivers Ed. The spectacular rainbow hued parking garage that you’re feasting your eyes on is the product of Craig Redman and Karl Maier, titled 72DP Mural Project. The dynamic duo is the brains behind Craig & Karl, a creative firm specializing in a genius array of colorful illustrations, installation, typography, editorial and pattern design. Craig & Karl’s most recent project is this shockingly colorful mural-turned-underground-parking-garage in Sydney. Their trademark eye-popping color occupies and award-winning residence and results in a dynamic mix of overlapping geometric forms that mirror and respond to the angularity of the architecture. We think they achieved their objective of breathing life into the space. How ‘bout you?

(Photography credit: Katherine Lu)

Great Ways to Invest in Yourself

Great Ways to Invest in Yourself:

Most people are scared of investing because it involves risk. No matter how sure you are about a stock, mutual fund, or business opportunity, there’s always the chance that you could lose all your money.

And that’s scary.

So what if I told you there’s a way to invest with absolutely no risk? I can’t promise an exact return on the investment, but I guarantee it will always be positive.

It’s called investing in yourself.

I know it sounds cheesy, but when was the last time you learned something new made you a better employee or job candidate? Instead of trying to get rich by putting huge piles of your hard-earned money into a stock you think is going to go up, why not invest time and money into improving your skills and boosting your earning power? (See also: Best Investment: Yourself)

More skills can lead to a higher pay, more job opportunities, and added job security. Bonus — more skills also make you more interesting.

That sounds great, but how do you invest in yourself without going back to school and paying thousands of dollars for a degree?

Here are some ways you can invest in yourself to boost your skills.

Read a Book

Books are my favorite way of learning new things. Everything I learned about investing and personal finance I learned from reading books. I read everything I could get my hands on and became knowledgeable enough that I started my own site, The Writer’s Coin. I recommend I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi to start.

Start a Blog/Site

When I started my site I did it because I felt I had something to say about personal finance. I had no idea it was going to teach me about networking, social media, SEO, entrepreneurship, CSS, and PHP, or that it would start to make real money for me. Bonus — blogging regularly will make you a better writer, and that’s an essential skill in the world today. Go to Wordpress.com and start your own blog today — it’s free!

Subscribe to a New Site

Learn what an RSS fee is. Then start adding new sites to your reader, and you’ll stay up to date on whatever topic you’re curious about. This is how I injected myself into the personal finance blogosphere.

Take a Course

There's a course for anything you can imagine out there. Whether it’s a local class to learn how to cook or an online course about computer programming, if you can think it, I guarantee someone out there is teaching it. You’ll meet new people, learn new skills, and broaden your horizons. Thanks to the Internet you can learn pretty much anything you can think of. iTunes U has tons of cool courses for free!

Teach Something

The best way to become an expert on something is to have deep knowledge of it and then try to teach it to others. It works your brain in a totally different (and good) way. Plus you’ll meet some interesting people. Pick a sport/instrument/topic you know a lot about and teach your niece/nephew/child a basic concept about it — you gotta start somewhere!

Learn a Language

This is easier said than done, but if your job requires a lot of travel or will be investing in another country soon, then another language might be essential. Tip — Duolingo is gonna be awesome.

Freelance

Freelancing is a great way to get a taste of another job without leaving your current one. It’ll also teach you about handling clients, running a business, and marketing. Check out Craigslist or ask your friends if they need help with something.

Be Smart About the Skills You Learn

Don't expect your boss to give you a raise simply because you can say "hello" in French. Be smart about which skills you tackle and how they fit into your career plan. If your company just signed a major client from France, then go ahead. If you're doing it because you like Paris, it probably won't have an effect on your value to the company.

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Written by Carlos Portocarrero and published on Wise Bread. Read more articles from Wise Bread.

• 6 Ways to Get Paid to Learn


• How to Start Your Own Blog


• Bestselling Author Ramit Sethi Giving Free Trip Anywhere in the US to One Lucky Wise Bread Reader


• 3 Reasons Not to Invest Now


• Continue your education...online

Hustlin': The Rise of the Privileged Poor

Hustlin': The Rise of the Privileged Poor:

In our weekly Hustlin' series, we go beyond the pitying articles about recession-era youth and illuminate ways our generation is coping. The last few years may have been a rude awakening, but we're surviving. Here's how.

Down to my last sweet potato and tofu slices, I prepare the ingredients in a casserole dish. Maybe it’s my haste to finally eat something that day or the dish towel I have to use in lieu of potholders, which are currently too expensive for me, but I drop it, all over the inside of the oven, twice. Here's where I realize how poor I am: I cry. And not just because I’m frustrated. I cry because I need this food, this tofu and these miniature sweet potatoes, to last me through the week.

So what do I do? I do what will later become the basis of my favorite "I'm so poor" joke: I scrape food off the bottom of my oven, put it into a casserole dish, add paprika and cumin, cook it for ten more minutes, and then I call it “dinner.”

I haven’t been talking about how poor I am in a serious way or how terrifying it is to be on the cusp of my 30th birthday, wondering when I'll have enough quarters to do laundry again. I’ve distanced myself from the small, artistic circle of people I hung out with when I had enough money for a whiskey at a dive bar. Instead of confessing my financial problems, I've removed myself from my lifeline of friends who respond to my suggestions of free activities like going for walks by saying they’d rather hit a club I can’t afford. This isn't the place I thought I would be after getting a master's degree, though to be honest, I didn’t really bank on finding a lucrative full-time job with an MFA in creative writing. But I also didn’t foresee the possibility that my fifteen years’ experience of restaurant, publicity, design, administrative, and editorial work would ever not provide me with some possibility of income. And here I am, worried on a daily basis that someone may ask me to do a perfectly fun activity that requires money.

The last time I publicly stated that I was poor, I was met with two main responses from friends and family: Remarkably generous people sent dry groceries and anonymous Trader Joe’s gift cards in the mail and told me I made them sad, and some others asked me why I couldn’t just get something “flipping burgers,” as though this would of course be the easiest task. My grandmother went outside the norm and called to remind me that I should never sell my body. While I appreciated the groceries, I’ve since been dodging these responses by living in a “fake it ‘til I make it” mentality, because our culture—whether you’re rich or poor yourself—is better equipped to deal with middle-class individuals than with those in poverty, and the last thing I want to do to a friend, or a potential employer, is make them feel sad. But “making it” isn't the same as it used to be, so what exactly does “faking it” accomplish? What am I gaining by not talking about my poverty?

I grew up poor. I also grew up privileged, depending on how you look at it. I had a very poor teenage mother, and my sister and I spent a great deal of time being raised by our grandparents, who were once very poor as well—like, orphans-abandoned-by-their-families poor—but had come into some money with hard work and a decades-long investment in what became our family bar. When I was with my mother, we had potato chips for dinner. When I was with my grandparents, we had potato chips and prime rib, only we still had to eat them on the floor. To this day, none of us knows what money is for different reasons. But now that I am coming to understand, it’s important to ask: Does it seem strange when I say I’m poor, yet eating tofu? Or when I self-reflexively use the phrase “dive bar”? Was my MFA degree the poor life decision that led me to this desperate state, or was it my family history?

The fact is, we can no longer tell someone’s financial reality by what they eat, how they dress, and where they grew up. While I’ve technically surpassed my parents in terms of education and advantage, I am still dependent on a restaurant job, and my peers are now considered the first generation of youths to do worse than their parents. Suddenly, we’re all on a level playing field shaking cocktails side-by-side, and my own burdens of privilege-jealousy have come to a dizzying halt, because even the middle class, of whom I had been previously so resentful, are my coworkers and low-income housing neighbors. At this point, I wish I had never attempted to transcend my class with education; it would make life that much neater. For those of us who have taken the leap to maintain or jump our classes—the interns, graduate students, and college-bound—and who’ve come out disappointed, we’re not alone. The permanent poor are right there with us, and this is a good thing.

My first instinct: There’s no way anyone can compare the harshness of the life of an undocumented migrant worker to that of a former graduate student. But this implies both that I should pity migrant workers and that I’m too good to be associated with their class. I have learned something about pity in my most recent year of poverty: Very few people on all rungs of our society are equipped to assist others who need it without thinking lesser of them, and in some cases, vilifying them.

Recently, New York passed a bill that gave restaurant workers the power to ask for the money they’ve earned and to fight for fair wages and working conditions. Restaurant owners retaliated by insinuating that all restaurant workers involved in class-action lawsuits against the owners were lazy and selfish. Because they must ask for things—in this case, even things that are owed to them—they are lesser. The idea that certain jobs are inherently less valuable or undesirable is so ingrained in our society that in my home state of Michigan, talk of raising the minimum wage of tipped restaurant employees from $2.65 to the standard wage of all workers has sparked an outrageous debate.

The more fortunate tell workers in 2012 to find their “extra”—the thing that makes them stand out—but that implies they have not been doing this all along. Their poverty is a direct result of their own poor choices or mishandled finances, with some people (undocumented migrant workers, for one) possibly getting the pity pass, because they arguably have it harder than a gainfully employed service worker. Maybe it’s time we refuse to give into this divisive reasoning. Maybe it’s time for the “fake it ‘til you make it” class to understand that the goals they’ve had may be misguided, or that the life their parents had may never be attainable. And this is OK, because we’re surrounded by allies, all bound by the same basic goals.

Here’s an experiment for the interns, service workers, graduate students, freelancers, and temps: Think deeply about your privilege, your advantages, your family history, that some may have it better or worse off than you do. Then, forget all of it. The success of our economy will come in the form of indignance, not pity; awareness, not tacit acceptance. Resist the urge to feel sad or pass blame, and we’ll all share our favorite “I’m so poor” jokes at the end. Here’s mine: I’m so poor that I ate some oven crumbs, and two months later, I told the world that I’m poor and felt absolutely no shame.

Photo via (cc) Flickr user avlxyz.

It’s All Your Fault! So Start Working Harder

It’s All Your Fault! So Start Working Harder:

I don’t know why so many people blame others for their failures or mishaps in their lives… Maybe it’s their ego, maybe in society failure is seen as weakness, maybe people will make fun of them…Or maybe it’s just easier to blame others for their problems? “It’s not that I’m doing anything wrong, he’s preventing me, or he’s the reason for so and so” I’m not sure why that is though…I don’t understand it. I find it SO easy, after letting go of my ego, to say “I failed because I did this, or didn’t do this.” And the process of learning from it is instantaneous.

I recently started getting into day game, which in the shortest way to describe it, is pick up. But there’s more to it than just meeting hot girls. Day game is about how to “pick up” some one you like whether you’re at the supermarket, the mall, or on the street. (among other places). Who doesn’t want to be able to strike up a conversation with someone they see and like? In my two month start of this, I’ve drawn an incredible number of parallels between what may seem like completely opposite things. Now, before you turn away and wonder why the heck I’m talking about pick-up on an Entrepreneur website, hear me out!

“She won’t like me because I’m ugly”, ”I’m not ripped like the Jersey Shore guys” , “She’s out of my league”..

“I’m not apart of the Startup cliques, they’re a close circle of friends”, “I don’t have any connections”, “I can’t compete against Company X”, “My product is great, people are just dumb and don’t like it.”

There are plenty of parallels in the excuses people come up with. Most of which they think they have no control over. But here’s the thing, they’re wrong. The only thing preventing a startup from going out there, from competing, or from getting the super hot girl, is the guy or girl in charge not going out there, not making moves and not listening to customer feedback. Now, you may be wondering, well if you’re born Ugly, you really can’t do anything about that… But what gets the attention of woman is confidence. That doesn’t mean you should go out looking like a slob. If 90% of the equation in getting the girl is confidence, knowing how to lead a conversation, knowing how to build attraction, and most importantly, going out there and approaching, then the 10% of Ugly means NOTHING. But then you must admit something to yourself. If you don’t get girls, which is seen as being manly, you’re half a man…And if you can’t succeed in business, you can’t provide for your family, and that means you’re half a man…So what, not everyone is born the most successful entrepreneur, or the best with woman…So youre half a man… Work on it and become a full man! But look, there’s no reason you should fail. While many failures bring you closer to success in starting companies, that doesn’t mean you will eventually become the next Steve Jobs, but you’ll definitely get luckier, the harder you work. It’s a numbers game. The more approaches, the more rejections, the more you reflect on what YOU did wrong in the previous hundred conversations and learn from them, the closer you are to getting a date.

If you:

If you approach a girl, and you forget about things to say, you could fail.

If you start a company, and aren’t good at writing emails, you could fail.

If you approach a girl and only talk about yourself, you could fail.

If you build a startup and only talk about the produce but don’t listen to feedback, you could fail.

If you approach a girl, and have a great conversation, but then she flakes for a date, you did fail.

If you startup a company, and launch it, get good press, but no one buys your product, you fail.

If you approach 1000000 girls, and you get 1 date, you win.

If you startup 1000000 companies that fail, and get the 1 success, you win…And then everyone can tell you how lucky you are. (Mark Cuban)

And now, think of this… When a guy gets with a girl, they call it “Getting lucky.” Which is odd, because it wasn’t luck. He tried with 10000 girls before, and finally developed the right skills, with the right girl, and won. Or maybe he is naturally good with woman. No one in the startup community thinks it’s luck that they start a great company. Sure there’s a little bit of luck in that equation, in the same way that it’s luck that the girl will like you, because most might not. I know I’ve been on the side that says other guys are lucky because they are gorgeous, and I may be average looking. But when I look at my business and see the success I have had, people tell me I’m lucky. I’m not lucky, I worked hard to get where I am.

So that brings me to my original idea for this post…I realized, the reason I may not be getting girls, isn’t because I am “needy” or don’t like going to clubs, it’s because I haven’t put in the work to get the girl, to figure out how to build attraction, and how to get over approach anxiety. I said to myself “The only reason is because I have not worked hard enough at it… And if I work hard enough at it, I can succeed.” And you know what, I had been putting in the time (temporarily stopped to focus on my last stretch of game development) and I had been making progress. The minute you realize the reason you fail is no fault other than yours, and truly look in at yourself and say ‘I need to take responsibility for every single thing’ you will not only feel great, but you’ll be on the road to success. Just like in business, no one will like your startup if you don’t have the confidence in yourself. How can you pitch and convey confidence and energy if you aren’t happy? You need to love your idea and yourself, before anyone else does, in the same way a girl won’t like you unless you like yourself first. You need to get your validation from within.

When you go to networking events, maybe you’re afraid to say hi and introduce yourself. Well, I think if you introduce yourself to enough people, you’ll eventually find your business partner. The more times you try, the closer you are to succeeding. The more skills you develop through failure, the better prepared you are to continue. And the most important parallel, never be afraid to fail. Because you will and one day you can look back and see how much you grew.

Best,

Stephen M. Levinson

@InkkyGames

*I’d like to point out, I’m a very friendly, confident, happy and talkative guy, so getting into day game came somewhat easy for me. But not everyone will be so great at something. And the only reason is practice. The more you practice at something, the easier it is. As with anything. Don’t let yourself blame your environment, or how you were raised, or natural selection from preventing you from achieving anything. You can do anything, and I think this is an extreme example of that. Conquer your fears, forget about failure, and go build your startup!

Laziness is the Key to Success

Laziness is the Key to Success:

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: “Whoa! That’s a provocative title,” but it’s true. Being lazy can be an awesome character trait.

I would hazard a guess and say that laziness has helped keep my budget sane, and also has helped keep me relatively healthy even with a stressful, time-consuming job. Although venerating laziness is definitely contrarian, there’s actually a whole magazine devoted to being lazy.

There’s a great exchange in Office Space which illustrates the power of doing nothing:

Peter: What would you do if you had a million dollars?

Lawrence: I’ll tell you what I’d do, man: two chicks at the same time, man.

Peter: That’s it? If you had a million dollars, you’d do two chicks at the same time?

Lawrence: Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I were a millionaire I could hook that up, too; ’cause chicks dig dudes with money.

Peter: Well, not all chicks.

Lawrence: Well, the type of chicks that’d double up on a dude like me do.

Peter: Good point.

Lawrence: Well, what about you now? What would you do?

Peter: Besides two chicks at the same time?

Lawrence: Well, yeah.

Peter: Nothing.

Lawrence: Nothing, huh?

Peter: I would relax… I would sit on my ass all day… I would do nothing.

Lawrence: Well, you don’t need a million dollars to do nothing, man. Take a look at my cousin: he’s broke, don’t do shit.

When it comes to personal finance, I’m just too lazy to want to spend money. It’s funny, but it’s true. When I have to visit a mall, I just want to go to sleep. The same goes for a big department store. It’s just exhausting for me to go out and spend money. I’d rather relax at home or do something that interests me.

If your lifestyle doesn’t revolve around going to the movie theater, shopping in the mall, and buying expensive experiences, it’s a lot easier to be on firm financial footing. If you don’t have friends who are profligate spenders and prefer something a little quieter, you will save money compared to having friends that just want to drink, play cards, or go to expensive concerts.

The same goes for food. I do everything I can to abstain from buying junk food when I’m shopping. Many weekends I’ll only eat a little bit because I’m too lazy to want to do dishes and prepare food! These are the times that I’m thankful I’m so lazy.

You might be surprised to find out that there’s even a diet based on laziness! It’s call the Warrior Diet, and the idea is that you just eat a single meal each day. Supposedly this is scientifically determined to be good for you. I don’t really trust any nutritional science at this point. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with just eating once a day.

When I eat at work, I’ll usually just prepare oatmeal. I can pick up a canister at the supermarket on the way to work, and it will last me about 2 weeks. Preparing breakfast and lunch is as easy as going to the coffee machine and pressing the hot water button. That might sound extreme, but the past few weeks, I’ve gotten even lazier than that – and sometimes I won’t even eat lunch at work. It’s great: I get to be lazy, don’t need to prepare as much, and I actually have *more* energy than when I have a big lunch.

Isn’t laziness wonderful?