This NY Times article, The Man Who Inspired Jobs, says a lot about who Steve Jobs was. What I found interesting is that both Jobs and Land both mixed art and science together with the final bit being business, how to make money off of your ideas. Both were autodidacts and pursued their dreams and talents to their ends.
I came across this today and even though I discuss Apple technology, sometimes even low tech can make a difference in someone’s life.
Here someone has designed solar lighting using a liter soda bottle, water with bleach, and putting them in needed places that can’t or it is too costly to get electric light.
Watch the two videos below to see how a soda bottle is changing lives.
When you start your own business, you keep your costs down so as to ensure you have enough capital to make it for the long haul. If you have had Angel investors or Venture Capitalists, you still look out for keeping your costs in line with your growth so that you can get your product into a larger market.
In my post last week What do the rich pay for? about what the rich really do pay for I shared that they pay for the expensive stuff which leads to investments to reduce the price of the product so that others can afford it. Now let’s look at the other end of the money spectrum, the poor.
When you think of the poor what brings to mind most of the time his children in Africa or other Third World country with distended bellies and flies surrounding their eyes and mouth. You also think of running around barefoot on a dirt road next to a shack that with pieces of cardboard, metal, plastic, or scraps of wood put together to create a shelter from the elements. You also get the vision of mountains of trash with kids digging through trash to look for food to eat or other things to sell turn enough money to buy food. You’re also reminded of the devastating aftermath of Japan’s recent earthquake and tsunami. This post is not about lessening these problems or that we should not help, we should and as human beings we should take responsibility to provide help. But this post is about a different poor.
Let’s start with watching this, it’s only four minutes long.
This is a guest post by Scott Rodgers of Digital Marketing Engineer. We had a conversation Tuesday evening at the Front Range Bloggers Meetup Tuesday evening about entrepreneurship and here he recounts the story he told me. I had to get him to write it. Thanks Scott.
Kevin, I had a conversation with a mom recently that made me think of you and I thought I would share. She came to me with an interest in creating a web business with her son — the primary goal being that it would serve as a vehicle to allow her son to experience a business as he was growing up. As you well know, this can build a meaningful perspective of money, business, employment and a sense of empowerment. This conversation made me think of my own experience as a kid…
My mother owned a business for 20 years and employed nearly 50 people at its peak. I grew up doing just about every job, including the ones people would not want to do (who else would you ask to paint the outside of the building on a sunny 97-degree summer day?). The experience of hearing about business at the dinner table and working primarily during my summers off from school quickly had an effect on me.
When you become a startup entrepreneur, you just start taking steps in the direction you want to take and with each step you get a little farther along toward your destination. But one thing is for sure along this path of startup entrepreneurship, you need to smell the roses along the way, take a pause and look back to where you’ve been. So here’s a brief “smell the roses” part for every entrepreneur out there.
Since half of the population is made up of women, we need to help them become entrepreneurs. Well Marcus Buckingham has come up with an online test to help women define who they are.
Here’s the link. Strong Life Test - http://stronglifetest.com/
Take the test and start getting happier.
For those that take it, please stop by and give feedback for others. Thanks
