Kolz Blog

Backing up your data on a regular basis is important, and turning a spare computer into a backup server is often the best way to make sure it gets done. But most methods require either a good deal of command-line learning or serve only one operating system. Not with Restore, a free, open-source backup system that can install or run from a live CD, work with any OS, and operate through a simple browser-based interface. Today I'll demonstrate backing up a Windows laptop to an older desktop, but you'll see how Restore can be easily molded to fit just about any home backup needs.

Getting started

First we'll need the right live CD from Restore's SourceForge pages. Grab the most recent "RESTORE-EE-LIVE" .iso file you see there—it's technically the "Enterprise Edition," but don't let that title scare you off. Burn the ISO to a blank CD with the program of your choice, place it in the disc drive of a computer that can boot from a CD, then fire it up. Now you can check out how Restore runs on your spare box (or old laptop) before dedicating yourself to installing it, without a single bit of data touched. Those with a bit of Linux savvy can also install Restore from Ubuntu/Debian packages or in a virtual machine; installation will be different, but the operation is the same. Restore is based on Xubuntu, the lightweight Ubuntu Linux distribution, and boots up in nearly identical fashion. Hit "Start or Install RESTORE" from the first screen and give the CD time to boot up (go back and try "Safe Graphics Mode" if you see only black). Once you're in, you should see a desktop similar to this (click for larger image): If you're not hard-wired to your internet connection, click the icon in the upper-right to configure your wireless connection. If you can't get access, your networking hardware might be the rare exception that Ubuntu doesn't handle out of the box; try the Ubuntu Forums or a little Google-searching for help. If you're set on installing Restore, hit the "Install" icon on the desktop and follow the fairly simple prompts. Whatever drive or partition you install to, that's where the backups will go. If you need help partitioning off space from a Windows installation, reference Adam's triple-boot guide or Ubuntu's community docs for pointers. Whether you're installing or just testing it out, find the IP address of the computer running Restore through your router. Alternately, click the "Applications" button in the Restore desktop, then Accessories->Terminal, then enter the command ifconfig and look for the address after "inet addr:", which usually looks like 192.168.x.x). Save yourself future IP hunts by setting a static IP address for your new backup server; see Adam's recent BitTorrent feature for a primer.

Set up your systems

Most backup servers rely on each computer regularly sending their files to them. Restore, on the other hand, reaches out to computers and copies their important files on a schedule. To make sure your system's ready to accept remote connections, do the following:

• Vista: Head to "Set up file sharing" or "Network and Sharing Center" from the Control Panel. Make sure "Network discovery," "File sharing," and "Password protected sharing" are set to "On." Right-click any folders you want to back up on your system, select "Share," "Change sharing permissions," and follow through the prompts.
• Windows XP: Follow Restore's own guide to selectively share folders for backup.
• Mac OS X: Enable "Remote Login" in the "Sharing" section of the System Preferences menu. That's it—although take note of the IP address listed at the bottom of the "Sharing" screen.
• Linux: You have your choice of either using Samba for Windows File Shares access—I've found this forum post to be the most concise setup guide, at least for Ubuntu—or open up an SSH server on your system (Google to find a how-to for your distro). [Read more]

Lifehacker reader Michael writes in with a nifty tip that was lurking in our comments all along, but deserves to see the bright light of posting. If you're already using the Unix-like Cygwin, it's an easy hack to embed Cygwin's commands into your standard Windows comand prompt; if not, it might be worth checking out the free download. The instructions follow after the jump. These instructions are for Windows Vista, but fairly similar to the process in Windows XP (check out an XP-specific environment variable tutorial for more clarification.) The steps: [Read more]

Windows only: MSConfig Cleanup does one thing that you might only need once, but it does it well. When you run "msconfig," also known as Windows' System Configuration tool, or a number of other optimizing programs, you have the option of disabling startup items to free up memory at boot time. Those items remain, unchecked, in the menu, however—unless [Read more]

Jason Alba, author of I'm on LinkedIn -- Now What?, gives Wired's How-To Wiki advice on how to use LinkedIn for something other than esteem-boosting connection counting. One of the keys is stepping away from the monitor if you want to make contact with somebody in a contact's network—in other words, use that old-fashioned phone to get ahead. [Read more]

I’ve just finished my newest book on holistic learning, Learn More, Study Less. With over 200 full-color pages, six bonus documents and over a month spent on individualized experimenting, the program is finally ready. You can get your copy today for 39.95.

• Learn More…
• Download a Free Preview
• Buy Your Copy

I introduced holistic learning almost a year ago in an article, How to Ace Your Finals Without Studying. The article and small e-book that followed have become the most viewed items on this website. Even today, almost a year later, I still receive many e-mails from people who were intrigued by the ideas but wanted to learn more. Holistic learning isn’t complicated, but understanding how it works is different than being able to apply it. As a result, I took a different route producing this e-book, investing more time researching and experimenting with other students. The book is almost triple the size of my last e-book, How to Change a Habit, and goes into far more depth than I could have with a smaller release. What’s Inside? The book is split into three major parts:

1. Strategy
2. Techniques
3. Beyond Holistic Learning

The first section is a major expansion of my original e-book. It explains what holistic learning is, what the stages of holistic learning are and how holistic learning looks at different types of problems. I’ve tried to give as much depth as possible to my ideas to fill some of the gaps left in the original e-book. [Read more]

Macros, in processing data, may need to spread text out among different columns in a worksheet. This tip explains how you can utilize the power in Excel's Text-to-Columns tool from within your own macros. ((This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and Excel 2003.).) Read this ExcelTip: Delimited Text-to-Columns in a Macro Microsoft Excel Tips - Learn Excel Faster!

Every month we take a look around and select some of the most interesting web-development-related web-sites. We read articles, check out tools, analyze the advantages of new resources. Below you’ll find useful references, tutorials, services, tools, techniques and articles we’ve found over the last 30 days - an overview of web-sites you shouldn’t have missed in February 2008. All images can be clicked and lead to the sites from which the screenshots have been taken.

Design-Galleries, Showcases, Inspiration

• 20 Beautiful HDR Pictures There are some photography techniques that really give me the goose bumps, but the good ones. HDR is one of those techniques… and you’ll probably love these as much as we do.
• Pattern Inspiration Sometimes it’s needed to go look in odd places to find inspiration. Take patterns for example, often used for backgrounds etc. There is a bit of a trend in interior design at the moment with the revival of the vintage wallpaper backgrounds from the sixties & seventies.
• The Evolution of Tech Companies’ Logos You’ve seen these tech logos everywhere, but have you ever wondered how they came to be? Did you know that Apple’s original logo was Isaac Newton under an apple tree? Or that Nokia’s original logo was a fish? Let’s take a look at the origin of tech companies’ logos and how they evolved over time.
• Modernist Stamps Flickr Set A set of Modernist stamps featured in January’s Monograph, a collectable A5 Booklet from Creative Review. [via cpluv]
• Quick Grungy Poster Photoshop Tutorial This tutorial shows how to create a sort of grunge poster. You’ll learn how to make some elements look a bit dirty, create textures and add some depths to the elements using shadows and blend modes.
• Logo Design Trends 2008 Logos are the ultimate mark of distinction and everyone loves them. This article attempts to discuss current trends in logo design; among them - organic 3D, Waves, Transparency, Minimal Typography and The New Crest.
• Grid and Column Designs If you are looking for inspiration for grid and column design, here is a nice collection of 32 column-based websites. These sites show how grid layout can be applied on various type of sites — whether a massive content editorial site or just a personal blog.
• Movable Love A showcase of interesting and beautiful sites powered by Movable Type. Textpattern Showcase and Wordpress Showcase might turn ot to be useful as well.
• Home Page Carousel Showcase: 40+ Carousel Designs Christian Watson strikes again. A showcase of home page carousel designs to see what common themes emerged and also what different approaches designers took.
• Pre-owned bookmarks Pre-owned bookmarks, collected over the years from books purchased at flea markets, garage sales, used bookstores, etc.
• Typesites Typesites is a weekly showcase of websites with interesting typographic design.
• Insanely Creative Portfolios From Around the Web A growing collection of beautiful online portfolios. Not single one of them is Web 2.0ish, which is a good thing.

Icons, Fonts

• Flower Folders Iconset All icons are transparent, created in Illustrator, completely vectorized and available in .png 512 x 512. Format: .psd, scalable, layered, editable. Illustrator file .ai is attached. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0.
• iPhone Wallpapers A collection of excellent wallpapers for your iPhone.
• Free Vector Icon Set - Containing 25 Icons “This set contains 25 scalable Illustrator icons. You can open the .ai file with any version of Illustrator above 8.0. With earlier versions, you might loose some of the effects on the icons.”
• PNG Icons & Icon Packs A large collection of free and fresh icons collected on one single site.
• Free Flag Icons More than 220 free flag icons representing countries and unions all over the world in PNG format. Sizes : 16×16, 24×24, 32×32, 48×48.
• 16 Incredibly Detailed, Useful (and free) Dingbat Fonts An overview of useful Dingbat fonts available for free download.

News, Updates, Tips

• NYTE New York Talk Exchange illustrates the global exchange of information in real time by visualizing volumes of long distance telephone and IP data flowing between New York and cities around the world. Videos and images are included.
• Netdiver Magazine - Best of the Year / 2007 Netdiver reviews some of the most interesting and inspiring projects of the year 2007. “These folks whatever their disciplines create memorable and dazzling projects, taking us to uncharted territories where imagination, skill, talent abide - inciting us to keep pushing forward.”
• Konigi: Form, function, fetish Konigi community researches how others have designed the look and feel of web sites and crafted their user interfaces. “If you’ve ever searched around for market research and competitive information related to the user experience and design of web sites within any industry, then you’ll want to watch this space.”
• Make3D Make3D generate a 3D model out of any uploaded photo. The results are quite impressive. 3D models can be downloaded in VRML, Flash or 3dS format. You need to register before uploading your own images.
• Firefox Hits New High as IE7 Lags IE: 66%, Firefox: 28% (European browser usage statistics). Mozilla Firefox continued its slow but steady march against the worldwide dominance of Microsoft Internet Explorer in 2007. Though the open-source web browser continues to sit firmly in second place behind IE, where it’s been for years, usage of Firefox is still on the rise.
• Adobe AIR v1.0 & Flex 3.0 Released; New Adobe Open Source Site Launched Continuing their march into the RIA space, Adobe announced the official release of AIR v1.0 and Flex 3.0. The new Adobe AIR runtime enables Ajax developers to build rich Internet applications (RIAs) that deploy on the desktop. AIR applications run across operating systems on the WebKit HTML engine and are easily delivered using a single installer file.
• Map of social network popularity around the world Asia loves Friendster, Russia loves LiveJournal, and Orkut still dominates Latin America. [via Waxy]
• OpenID goes Big In February Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign and Yahoo joined the OpenID Foundation: will OpenID-enables sites (where users do not need to remember traditional authentication tokens such as username and password and can use universal authentification instead) soon become a standards?
• Web Developer Crossword Puzzle This crossword puzzle’s questions cover such topics as: search engines, CSS, C#, JavaScript, Browsers, Programming and just about anything else Web-related (.pdf). The answers are already published (.pdf).
• Free Photoshop Actions to Boost Your Designs An action is a series of tasks that you play back on a single file or a batch of files - menu commands, palette options, tool actions, and so on. This article presents a number of actions for Photoshop you can download and use for free.
• Things I have learned in my life so far Another social project focusing on people’s experiences summarized in a brief statement and a photo.
• SitePoint CSS Reference Sitepoint has published an updated version of its comprehensive CSS reference.
• You Suck At Photoshop Video Tutorials Donny Hoyle is damn good. The most entertaining Photoshop video tutorials you’ve ever seen.

CSS-Techniques

• How to recreate Silverback’s Parallax Parallax scrolling is a psuedo-3D effect often used in side scrolling games to create depth. In this article Clearleft lead designer Paul Annett explains how he used the effect to great success on their newly launched Silverback site.
• Five CSS menu tutorials This post includes five CSS menu tutorials inspired by some Web 2.0 sites with round corners, scriptaculous and Ajax effects. Among them: Digg-like navigation bar using CSS, Flickr-like horizontal menu and Gettyone-like search options menu. [Read more]

One funny thing I’ve seen while attending a corporate presentation is have one guy try to access a website typing a few letters and have the address bar history refer him to the porn sites he had visited. Imagine the embarrassment [Read more]

I was at a networking gathering - well, it was four women chatting about business, books, and the merits of cheap Trader Joe's champagne, but I digress - when I met an entrepreneur with a cool business called Ninth Moon. Her name is Laron Glover. Ninth Moon is an online store that specializes in gifts and tools for writers. But many of her products have lots of potential uses. One product in particular caught my attention - it is called the focus frame and it is a very cool thing indeed. Here's a pic from her website: Here's how Laron describes it: "

It’s a combination tool that embraces time-management (priority setting) and empowerment (you can do this!). It’s simple, and it works. Julia Childs claimed “anything is edible if chopped small enough.” Anne Lamott called it a one-inch frame [Read more]

A few people have asked about this lately, so here are a few easy steps to use images from http://office.microsoft.com/clipart as wallpaper or screen savers. If you're using Windows:

• For wallpaper:
  1. Go to http://office.microsoft.com/clipart and download the image(s) you'd like to use.
  2. Navigate to the images (they should be in My Pictures folder, in a subfolder called Microsoft Clip Organizer)
  3. Right-click the image you want to use and select Set as desktop background
  4. If you want to change the way the picture is displayed on your desktop, right-click the desktop, and then click Properties
  5. On the Desktop tab, in the Position box, select a display option.
• For screen saver:
  1. Go to http://office.microsoft.com/clipart and download the image(s) you'd like to use.
  2. click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Display.
  3. On the Screen Saver tab, under Screen saver, click My Pictures Slideshow in the list.
  4. Click Settings to specify the folder containing your pictures,
  5. Navigate to the images (they should be in My Pictures folder, in a subfolder called Microsoft Clip Organizer) [Read more]

Breakfast is a hassle. I want it to do one thing: provide nutrient-dense food and proper macronutrient ratios in the least time possible. It’s a functional meal. The above is a video of the 3-minute high-protein and “slow-carb” breakfast that I find perfect for fat-loss and cognitive performance. All ingredients were purchased at Safeway in less than five minutes, and if you dislike the whiteness of egg whites, just mix in some tumeric to create that familiar yellow. Flax meal instead of oil can also be mixed into either for a nice added nutty texture, and barring that, a handful of organic almonds with sea salt (also at Safeway) as a dessert adds a good caloric wallop. [Postscript: I am replacing my plastic containers with Pyrex and glass! Several commenters have pointed out that toxins are released if you microwave certain types of plastic containers. Who knew trying to be healthy could be so dangerous?] ### [Read more]

Although choice is generally seen as a positive thing, the New York Times examines how and why closing a few doors can help you take major steps toward moving forward with projects and getting things done. The article begins with a look at a third century B.C. Chinese general named Xiang Yu, who burned his troops' ships and destroyed much of their means of survival on arriving in enemy territory. [Read more]

“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” - Woody Allen

We had the Parent Hacks earlier this week, and I was thinking it would be fun to do the same with finances — ways to trick yourself, to get around obstacles, to boost your accounts, without it hurting. Improving your finances improves your happiness, in general, so I thought it would be important to share stuff that’s worked for me. I’m in the best financial shape in my life, despite quitting my job and my wife recently quitting hers too. A lot of that is thanks to you guys, the readers, but it’s also thanks to frugality, to eliminating debt, to saving as much as I can. To these hacks. Here’s what works for me — please avoid flaming me, as I’m not saying they’ll work for everybody. Share your tips and tricks in the comments!

1. Use cash. Instead of charging things to credit cards or debit cards, use cash for non-bill spending such as eating out, gas, groceries. Spending cash makes the spending more real, and there’s an added advantage of knowing when you’re out of cash, instead of spending more than you
2. Small weekly savings transfers. I got this idea from my friend Trent at The Simple Dollar, who automatically deducts $20 a week from his check to savings. I decided that I could live with $40/week without really feeling it — it’s a relatively small transfer that I barely notice, and I save about $2,000 a year on top of my larger bi-weekly savings transfers.
3. Stay home. Going out makes you more likely to spend unnecessarily. You eat at restaurants, go to the mall, stop at the gas station for snacks. It’s hard to avoid spending when you’re on the road. Instead, stay home, and find free entertainment. It’s also a great way to bond with your family.
4. Don’t get catalogs. Or emailed announcements from companies trying to sell you stuff. Their announcements of sales or cool new products make it very tempting to buy something you don’t need. Instead, stop the catalogs and emails from ever getting to you in the first place, and you’ll spend less.
5. Keep a 30-day list. If you have an impulse to buy something you don’t absolutely need, put it on a 30-day list. You can’t buy anything but necessities — everything else goes on the list, with the date that it’s added to the list. When the 30 days are up, you can buy it — but most likely, the strong urge to buy it will be gone, and you can evaluate it more calmly.
6. Cook at home. I know, it seems more difficult than eating out. But it doesn’t have to be hard. Throw together a quick stir-fry with frozen veggies and either boneless chicken or (my favorite) tofu with soy sauce or tamari. Make home-made pizza with a ready-made crust, some sauce, cheese and veggies. Put some spices on something and throw it in the oven while you cook some brown rice. Not only is this much cheaper than eating out, but it’s healthier.
7. Exercise. Staying healthy is the best way to avoid costly medical bills later.
8. Use the envelope system. It’s the same idea as using cash for spending, but in addition you use envelopes to split your spending cash into categories. My non-bills categories are groceries, gas and miscellaneous spending. Three envelopes, and when they’re empty, I’ve spent my allotment.
9. Talk with your SO weekly. It’s important that you and your significant other be on the same page. You should have the same financial goals, and from there you should agree on a general spending plan and a policy for impulse buying that won’t have either of you wanting to choke the other. Make sure you both know what bills have been paid, what your balances are, etc. A weekly meeting of just 20 minutes accomplishes that. Communication is key. [Read more]

Applications that make it easy to share and collaborate are often of much more use to web workers than they are to standard office workers. Especially if you work online with colleagues at disparate locations, some of the best collaboration tools you can choose are free. In this post, I’ll round up several examples that you can count on. Although it’s still technically a beta product, I’ve had no problems using FolderShare, a Microsoft Windows Live service, to share files and folders securely with colleagues. FolderShare was acquired by Microsoft and is a full-featured application. The best aspect of it is that it lets you and colleagues share files and folders on a cross-platform basis. I’ve used it extensively to keep Windows and Mac systems in synch. Especially if you’re part of a virtual workgroup and need to keep everybody’s schedule firmed up, Google Calendar is the way to go. If you don’t yet use it, you can send out easy e-mail invitations for colleagues to share calendars with you, and Plaxo is good to look into if you want to synch your calendars with multiple other types of calendars. It’s often very useful for web workers who share things to be able to control each other’s computers. See my post on numerous ways to do this for free. Meetings—they never seem to go away. The good news is that online meetings can be much more efficient than real-world ones, especially if you can save some travel time. For online meetings, Yugma and Yuguu are good choices, as described here. [Read more]

Weblog Web Worker Daily sits down with Getting Things Done author and productivity evangelist David Allen to discuss his upcoming book and how GTD is more than just lists. To Allen, it's about control:

If you walk into anywhere and want to get more control, all you really need to do is a version of collect. That is I need to sit down and just get everything that has my attention or the attention of everybody in the group I'm trying to get [in] control. [Read more]

Tomorrow is February 29th, and besides happening only once every four years, it also concludes a record month for me revenue/profit wise. So, instead of rambling on about how great it is to make friends in the office or how it’s important to stay energized throughout the day, I thought that perhaps today I would link you to various websites, blog posts, and other resources that will help you start your business.

• Developing a Business Plan
A business plan is essential to your success. This great post from the Blue Fur blog will help you get your business plan on track!
• What Do People Want?
This post from AffiliateWeb.org talks about what people want from a website. The great thing about it is that you can take the information and relate it to anything, not just websites!
• Is “Being Self Employed” One Big Scam?
Becoming self employed: scam, or American dream? I don’t know, but this site does! Once you’ve read those sites, check out our sections on home business, entepreneurs, and movers and shakers. With all of the information on this site (and the thousands of excellent sites out there), there’s no reason that you couldn’t be making money tomorrow! Recommended Downloads:

• Free Business Cards.
• Free Business Plan Template.

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So you just graduated from communications school. You have your business degree in public relations, or you might be a marketing major, etc. You hit the ground running with an offer from several companies looking for “young, eager professionals with a communications degree” to “engage customers with social media tools”. Let’s cut to the chase. They want to hire a social media evangelist or a social media PR goon. You start your job and begin to hit all the usual spots. You setup Facebook groups and fan clubs. You get a Twitter account going. You start adding bunches of people to your LinkedIn network. You make sure the company has a blog. You do all the standard things to get going. Then something surprising happens. Nothing. Yeah, that’s right. Nothing. You end up following 1500 Twitter people and 30 of them follow you in return. This causes other people to look at friend/follower ratios and determine that you’re not “worth it” to follow. Been there? Your Facebook groups never get traction and the invitation to join them are ignored by people who get 30 or more invitations to something or other on Facebook and only have enough time to click “Ignore” on all of them. Starting to sound familiar? Your LinkedIn profile gets 300 connections - friends of friends, generally. When it comes down to hiring that marketing analyst, no one responds to your questions soliciting leads. [Read more]

Want to read a printed copy of a PDF that's portable and staple-free? BookletCreator is a free PDF conversion webapp that creates documents that can be printed and folded into an easy-to-read booklet. Assuming your PDF is oriented to "portrait" layout and is less than eight pages, you can get what appear to be pretty decent-looking booklets from your document. Got more than eight pages? Tell BookletCreator to split the file into so many pages per booklet, and spread your words and images across multiple copies. BookletCreator is free to use and doesn't require a sign-up.

Web-based image editor Picnik, recently integrated into Flickr, now offers its full range of editing tools for free, if you don't mind a few ads. Going ad-free would cost $24.95/year. [via]

PowerSwitch is a new add-in for Windows Home Server which puts your home server into standby and resumes it at user defined times.

• The add-in is a tab in the settings dialog.
• In the tab you’ll see two time entries and a drop down for selecting power down state. Simply select the times you want WHS to wake up and sleep, the method of shutdown (standby or hibernate if supported)
• Please enter the administrator password into the dialog box. For consistent operation of the shut down task you should enter this. If you feel uncomfortable entering in your password you can wait to do until after the task scheduler task is created. Then you can enter it into the task in the task scheduler (task name is PowerSwitchService). [Read more]

Michael Gerber, the E-Myth evangelist. Michael Gerber’s name should sound familiar. I recommend his bestseller, The E-Myth Revisited, as the must-read classic on automation. It brief, it discusses how to create scalable businesses that are based on rules and not outstanding employees; and how to become an owner instead of constant micromanager. Michael also had a enormous influence on me as a first-time writer. His words to me were simple during our first lunch: “If you’re going to write a book, write a f*ing book.” Don’t hedge and don’t think small. I didn’t hold back material for a sequel, I aimed for the top of the top, and I credit Michael’s advice as, in part, responsible for the subsequent success of the 4HWW. It was that recalibration of ambition that made it all possible. His latest book, Awakening the Entrepreneur Within, examines how to recalibrate the scale of objectives and other facets of the core entrepreneurial experience, which we recently sat down to discuss… 1. Michael, having counseled more than 50,000 post-corporate entrepreneurs caught in what you call the “entrepreneurial seizure,” can you explain this phenomenon and how to avoid it? The “entrepreneurial seizure” lies at the heart of most failures in judgment when someone decides to leave his or her job to go out on their own. The excitement of independence associated with getting rid of the boss is almost always fueled by a flawed understanding of what being on your own means. Most small businesses are started by technicians rather than by true entrepreneurs. The technician believes in the fatal assumption that because he or she knows how to do the work — whether graphic design, engineering, cooking a great dinner, repairing an automobile, snow boarding, or otherwise — they can turn that capability into a business that frees them from the boss. The graphic designer creates a graphic design business. The technologist creates a technology-based business. The cook creates a restaurant. The mechanic creates an auto repair business. The snow boarder creates a snow boarding business. But instead of freeing themselves from the boss, they have become their own boss, and they’re now — with absolutely no understanding about how it happened — working for a lunatic and doing what they know how to do but in greater volume than before. True entrepreneurs make the transition from working for someone else to working on their own much differently. Entrepreneurs invent businesses that work without them. Technicians create businesses that work because of them. The entrepreneur is liberated from what I call the “tyranny of routine,” and the technician becomes a slave to it. In the entrepreneur’s case, the business works. In the technician’s case, the technician works. And that’s why most of the 500,000 new businesses that are started every month in the U.S.A. will fail. According to a recent study done by the Kauffman Foundation, 81% of all businesses in the US employ no people besides the owner. They’re sole proprietorships. True entrepreneurs are never sole proprietors. 2. Much of the model you laid out in The E-Myth Revisited has to do with the importance of systems in building a scalable business. What is the shape of the process and the practical steps for business development in your model? As I’ve said before, and as AT&T has been quoted: the system is the solution. The system I’m talking about is the core operating system of your business. It comprises three essential functions that must work in a completely integrated way. These are lead generation, lead conversion and client fulfillment. Whether the business is McDonalds or Starbucks, FedEx or Dell Computer, these three systems are critical to the success of that company. Building these systems then is the process we teach at E-Myth. They are really arranged in a very simple three-step approach. Step one: intentional dreaming (the dream, the vision, the purpose and the mission). Step two: intentional organization (conceiving, building and perfecting the automated client fulfillment systems that comprise the operating reality of the company). Step three: intentional growth (conceiving, building and perfecting the lead generation and lead conversion operating systems of the company). Every business under the sun is conceived, built and perfected in identically the same way, using identically the same processes. 3. Has the Internet really fundamentally changed the game for small business? The internet era has, of course, changed the game for small business, but not as dramatically as most would profess. After all is said and done, the internet is simply a medium through which the business of business is transacted, a conduit through which one can communicate and deliver the results one has set out to deliver. As many or more companies fail on the internet as anywhere else, and many more businesses (especially sole proprietors) stumble along without every making an impact on anyone, and most without selling anything to anyone. In short, if an internet business fails to follow the three-step development process I just outlined, it will fail just like any other business will. So, I must say frankly that I am not a great believer in the internet as the be all and end all of business opportunity that others see it to be. Maybe I’m simply too old, but I think not. In short, I think that, given my experience of internet entrepreneurs as being very much the same as any other types of entrepreneurs, if they are absent the entrepreneurial fundamentals that are absolutely essential for any new company to grow, the result will be the same: lack of direction, lack of intention, lack of execution, diminished results. 4. In your new book you write–very counter-intuitively to most–that the reason most small businesses fail is not that they dream too big, but that they dream too small to create a truly thriving enterprise. Can you elaborate? By “dreaming big” I mean conceptualizing a result greater than anything you have ever experienced. When I started my first company, now E-Myth Worldwide, I had absolutely no business experience. All I had was an idea bigger than life itself. My idea, my dream, was to transform small business worldwide. That dream was the energizer for everything that was to follow. That dream for me was the realization of a picture I had formed in my mind of the typical small business I walked into every day, where the owner lived for sweat equity, worked 18-hour days, and had no idea that his or her life could be any different than the overwhelming life he experienced, and that all of his or her peers experienced in the day-to-day hell of doing it, doing it, and doing it some more. I just knew, don’t ask me how, it didn’t have to be that way. [Read more]

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” - Lao-Tzu

No matter how much structure we create in our lives, no matter how many good habits we build, there will always be things that we cannot control — and if we let them, these things can be a huge source of anger, frustration and stress. The simple solution: learn to go with the flow.

“Smile, breathe and go slowly.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

For example, let’s say you’ve created the perfect peaceful morning routine. You’ve structured your mornings so that you do things that bring you calm and happiness. And then a water pipe bursts in your bathroom and you spend a stressful morning trying to clean up the mess and get the pipe fixed. You get angry. You are disappointed, because you didn’t get to do your morning routine. You are stressed from all these changes to what you’re used to. It ruins your day because you are frustrated for the rest of the day. Not the best way to handle things, is it? And yet if we are honest, most of us have problems like this, with things that disrupt how we like things, with people who change what we are used to, with life when it doesn’t go the way we want it to go. Go with the flow. What is going with the flow? It’s rolling with the punches. It’s accepting change without getting angry or frustrated. It’s taking what life gives you, rather than trying to mold life to be exactly as you want it to be.

“Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.” - Chuang Tzu

A reader recently asked me to write more about going with the flow, so this is my attempt to share some of the things that work for me. As always, I don’t have any claims to perfection, and I’m learning as I improve, but the tips below should help anyone.

1. Realize that you can’t control everything. I think we all know this at some level, but the way we think and act and feel many times contradicts this basic truth. We don’t control the universe, and yet we seem to wish we could. All the wishful thinking won’t make it so. You can’t even control everything within your own little sphere of influence — you can influence things, but many things are simply out of your control. In the example above, you can control your morning routine, but there will be things that happen from time to time (someone’s sick, accident happens, phone call comes at 5 a.m. that disrupts things, etc.) that will make you break your routine. First step is realizing that these things will happen. Not might happen, but will. There are things that we cannot control that will affect every aspect of our lives, and we must must must accept that, or we will constantly be frustrated. Meditate on this for awhile.
2. Become aware. I’ve mentioned this step in previous articles on other topics, but that’s because it’s extremely important. You can’t change things in your head if you’re not aware of them. You have to become an observer of your thoughts, a self-examiner. Be aware that you’re becoming upset, so that you can do something about it. It helps to keep tally marks in a little notebook for a week — every time you get upset, put a little tally. That’s all — just keep tally. And soon, because of that little act, you will become more aware of your anger and frustration.
3. Breathe. When you feel yourself getting angry or frustrated, take a deep breath. Take a few. This is an important step that allows you to calm down and do the rest of the things on this list. Practice this by itself and you’ll have come a long way already.
4. Get perspective. This always helps me. I get angry over something happening — my car breaks down, my kids ruin my microwave — and then I take a deep breath, and take a step back. You know how you’re watching a movie and the camera zooms away and you can see much more of the world on the screen than you could before? How it goes from closeup to a larger, panoramic view of things? That’s what happens in my mind’s eye. I start to zoom away, until I’m pretty far away from things. Then whatever happened doesn’t seem so important. A week from now, a year from now, this little incident won’t matter a single whit. No one will care, not even you. So why get upset about it? Just let it go, and soon it won’t be a big deal. [Read more]

In pre-Vista versions of Windows Media Center, DVDs you ripped to your hard drive with programs like DVD Rip would show up for playback in the My Videos folder. For whatever reason, Microsoft decided to disable this [Read more]

I’ve been reading, practicing and blogging about productivity, GTD and various related topics for around two years now. I wish I could remember more clearly what set me on this road, there was certainly no major epiphany or one big moment. I probably came across an interesting article on lifehacking and GTD through Digg or some similar site. It sounded intriguing and useful so I continued to read into it more. I do remember buying Getting Things Done at the airport as reading material for the flight and holiday ahead though though I’ve tried numerous systems, experimented with different ideas and gone through various stages of complexity throughout this time, some of which I have chronicled in my evolving GTD series. What do I use now? A notepad… when I need to (the details of how I use it and how I got to this stage I will detail in a later post). What has become increasingly apparent over the last few months is how the tools I typically use are becoming increasingly redundant. Even my own templates aren’t as effective anymore! How have things ended up like this? [Read more]

As an individual we are like a company. That’s one reason why I love to read business books: there are a lot of business ideas that can be applied at individual level. But seeing ourselves as a company is not easy. It requires a new mindset and a new way to treat ourselves. If you do that, however, there is a clear advantage waiting for you: you will thrive in globalization. Globalization poses the threat that our skills will be commoditized and our jobs get moved overseas. By seeing yourself as a company, you will treat yourself professionally - just like companies do - which make you ready to face such challenges. You will be a free agent that is not dependent on an employer. I came to this realization when I read Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat. In it, he wrote that we now live in globalization 3.0. In globalization 1.0 (at the beginning of the 20th century), the main players were countries. In globalization 2.0 (1989-2000), the main players were multinational companies. But in globalization 3.0 (2000-now), the main players are empowered individuals. Thanks to technologies such as the Internet, globalization 3.0 allows individuals to do much more. For instance, it’s now possible for them to sell their products and services to worldwide customers, something that previously could only be done by companies. That’s why I believe seeing ourselves as companies is crucial. It may make the difference between being a winner and a victim. Here some things you should do to make yourself your own company: 1. Think of your employer as your customer If you now work for a company, the first thing you should change is your mindset. You are not an employee of the company. Instead, the company is a customer of yours. You are your own independent company, and your employer is just one customer that wants to consume the value you produce. Having this mindset will help you see things differently. 2. Take responsibility Since you are your own company, you must take responsibility for your career. When something bad happens, do not blame outside factors such as your employer or the economy. You are responsible for yourself. 3. Find your core competences Nowadays companies can only thrive if they focus on doing the few things that they do best. There is no way they can excel in everything. More likely, trying to do that will only waste valuable resources. So find your core competences. A good clue to find them is your passions. You can read more about it on my career tips article. After you find your core competences, move your resources (time, money, and energy) to hone them and bring them to the next level. 4. Outsource things outside of your core competences For things outside of your core competences, you should outsource them to someone else who can do it either better or cheaper than you. You can do that by hiring someone or using virtual assistant. Another way to do that is by using other people’s works and customizing them to meet your needs. For instance, you can use and customize someone else’s web template. [Read more]

Posted in Productivity Here is an outline of fundamental time-management principles. There’s nothing ground-breaking about these principles, just proven, common-sense steps to making the most efficient use of your time. I’ve formated this outline as a 3×5 inch card and attached PDF and MS Word versions. Print the card and carry it in your wallet, the back pocket of a Moleskine notebook or taped to the inside cover of your planning binder. Then, when you need to remind yourself of the basics, or help someone with their time-management processes, pull out the card and review. Set objectives that are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time-based

Prioritize:

• Decide which of your tasks you should:
  • Do
  • Delegate
  • Delay
  • Delete
• Eliminate the urgent:
  • Address the tasks that have short-term consequences
  • Set deadlines for tasks that have long-term implications

Organize

• Use a planner to track your tasks and appointments. [Read more]

In a recent forum thread about starting a new business, someone asked about the best way to handle competition. How do you ensure that your efforts will pay off instead of merely jumping into a giant pool with everyone else and being unable to stand out? My strategy for dealing with competition is the same no matter what field I work in. I’m sure you can apply it to your particular field as well, although there’s a good chance you won’t want to, since it isn’t easy. In fact, avoiding what’s easy is precisely the solution. If you want to carve out a place in a crowded field, one of the best ways to do that is to tackle the hard problems within that particular field, the kinds of problems that quickly discourage other people and force them to give up. Hard problems attract few competitors because everyone flocks to the easy problems first. But if you can solve a hard problem, you can create something uniquely valuable that’s difficult to duplicate. In fact, just being willing to go after the hard problems can set you apart from the crowd. I’ll give you three personal examples. Games Business Example The first few computer games I released were very basic in design. They had some unique elements, but most were pretty generic looking. Lots of other people could have developed them. Those games never sold well, generating just a trickle of income. Then I took a different approach. I set a goal to create a game that would be truly original, something that would have a very elegant, unique design. I spent four solid months designing this game, and the end product of all that work was a design doc that was only 5 pages long. Programming the game, making the levels, and doing the art, sound fx, and music only took two additional months. Many people could have programmed that game, but not many would have been able to come up with a design anything like it. The game’s unique design and gameplay became a strong selling point, and it quickly carved out a niche for itself in the crowded puzzle game market. The game sold well and won some awards too. I discontinued it in 2006, but I still get email from fans of the game today. Those four months of design work were very tough. I had to pursue many blind alleys and consider a vast field of possible options. There was no guarantee of even finding the type of solution I was looking for. After 3 months it seemed like I’d made very little progress. But eventually everything converged to a very elegant design. Once the design was complete, even before any of the levels or other game assets were created, I knew I had something great. I chose to compete in the area of design because I didn’t have the resources to compete in other areas. I couldn’t code 3D graphics like John Carmack, and I didn’t have the resources to compete with teams of professional artists, sound engineers, and musicians. My budget was pretty close to zero. I had to compete on the basis of creativity. As it turns out, coming up with a truly creative, elegant design is the “hard problem” of game development. You can throw tons of resources at art, music, and sound, and you’ll get good results, but you cannot guarantee a positive result no matter how much money and how many resources you devote to design. You’d be amazed that games that seem very simple on the surface may have taken months or even years of hard design work. The wheel may seem like a simple invention, but for some early human it was probably the solution to a particularly vexing problem. Blogging Example For this website I decided to tackle the hard problems of personal development, namely trying to identify the hidden order beneath the surface chaos in our lives. Although the results may often look simple, the thought and effort that goes into this work is extremely challenging. You may notice that I rarely write about the easy problems of personal development, like how to get your computer to run faster, where you can download free ebooks, or how to save money on your mortgage. You’ll find zillions of websites discussing those topics. Instead I focus most of my energy on the high-level, timeless concepts. This is much harder work, but the upside is that it gives me an opportunity to make a unique contribution. Most people who try to do this kind of work for a while soon give up in frustration. It may look easy on the surface, but I assure you it is not. This is one reason my website continues to thrive in an increasingly crowded field. Just because this work is hard doesn’t mean it’s painful. Tackling hard problems can be extremely rewarding, especially when the solution benefits others. Book Writing Example When I started writing my book, Personal Development for Smart People, I decided there was no way I’d write a generic “me too” book. For me the easy problem would be to create a book that was just a collection of advice about how to make improvements in different areas of your life. I quickly dismissed that option because lots of people can write such a book (and already have). There’s a centuries-old glut of such books. I see no point in adding to the pre-existing clutter. This just isn’t a hard enough problem. So I decided to write a book that would be very, very challenging, something I’ve never seen done before. I set out to find the common pattern behind all successful personal growth efforts, to identify a complete set of core principles that would be universally applicable. Other people have tried to write such books, but they provide only partial solutions filled with gaping holes. To define what the set of principles would need to look like, I outlined several criteria, all of which would have to be satisfied. These principles have to be true for anyone anywhere. They must be timeless, meaning that they can still be expected to work 1,000 years from now, and they’ll still have worked 1,000 years ago. They have to make logical and intuitive sense. They must work both individually and collectively, so they’re effective for any group of any size. They must work on the Moon as well as Earth. If I found myself alone on an alien world, I’d still use them. They must be culturally independent. They must work equally well for all areas of life — health, relationships, career, money, etc. They must be collectively complete, so no critical element is missing. And they must be simple, elegant, and beautiful. [Read more]

Over on the WGS Forums, we’re compiling a master list of Routers that auto-configure with Windows Home Server using uPnP. You’ll probably know that Windows Home Server is meant to be able to configure remote access for your router if it supports uPnP, but in fact, this only seems to work with some routers. If you’re having problems with your existing router, make sure you’re running the latest firmware for the router, as this can work miracles. So, if Windows Home Server auto-configured your router, then please visit the forums and let us know your router’s name and model number. If you have a firmware/hardware revision to hand, then that’s useful too. If you see a router listed that you do not believe auto-configures, it may be that you’re runner a different version of the router’s firmware. Please check the forum to see who submitted the router and contact them via the Personal Messaging system to check which firmware they’re using. Then let me know so I can update the list. Update: List Updated 27th February 2008 So far we have:

• 3 Com 3CRWDR100A-72 (UK)(Firmware 2.06)
• 3Com 3CRWE554G72T (UK)
• Actiontec MI424-WR
• Asus WL-700gE (UK)
• Belkin N1 (UK)
• Belkin F5D7230-4 (UK)
• D-Link DGL-4100 (UK)
• D-Link DGL-4300 (UK)
• D-Link DGL-4500
• D-Link DI-524 (UK)
• D-Link DI-634M (UK)
• D-Link DIR-635 (UK)
• D-Link DIR-655 (UK)
• Dynalink RTA1025W
• Linksys BEFSR41 (UK)
• Linksys BEFSR81 (UK) [Read more]

Today’s post is from Mike St. Pierre of The Daily Saint. This past week, Leo from Zen Habits interviewed Stephen Covey, legendary author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Stephen of Productivity in Context also made reference to this interview. The conversation between Leo and Covey is striking. Some observations:

• Covey wrote his opus in 1988
• Leo asks for specifics several times but it seems that Covey dodges the question or only provides general answers
• When asked what Covey thought about Getting Things Done, he described it as “overly simplistic” (ouch!)

My personal sense was that Leo and Covey were on an entirely different wavelength.

What to make of this?

My first thought was disappointment in Covey’s responses but then I stepped back and reminded myself that Covey’s prime was somewhere about 10 years ago, roughly 10 years after the launch of 7 Habits.As we approach the 6 year mark of Getting Things Done, it’s safe to say that David Allen is happily in his prime and has plenty of gas left in the tank. But what’s the “next big thing”? Who comes after Allen when GTD fizzles into what we perceive to be old material? [Read more]

“It’s a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it’s a depression when you lose your own.” — Harry S. Truman Experts are debating whether the US and inevitably the world economy is headed for a recession. Currently opinions among economists are split at about 50-50 to whether the US will experience recession in 2008. Other economists say that fear of a recession could help to cause one. And still others claim we are already in a recession. If the economy is heading for recession, what should you do? Should we just plan on standing in soup lines and getting government cheese? Or is there a better way? Here are 9 ways to recession proof your life you can start today…

Recession proof you:

1. Pay off credit - Probably one of the most powerful recession proofing moves you can make is to pay off all your debt. Paying off your credit means you won’t be a slave to your bills. It gives you the power of your paycheck and interest when you place money into investments.

• Sell off to pay off
• Pay off your smallest credit first
• Increase credit card payments without charging more

2. Delay gratification - Long gone are the days of allowing 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. Now almost every business is designed to provide immediate gratification. You want to rent a movie? Fire up iTunes and watch it - now. Want some new software? Download it - now. Want a new gadget or gizmo? Order it today get it tomorrow via free overnight delivery. What this “fast service” sets us up for is a feeling of need for immediate gratification. However, immediate gratification also hits your wallet very hard. 3. Develop long-term savings goals - How much money do you want to have when you retire? Starting earlier on that savings plan than later always works out better than starting later.

Recession proof your Work

1. Develop your niche - As you work at your career, moving toward a specialization is what brings in the bigger bucks. What is your specialty? What do people need from you the most? That is likely your specialty or niche that if honed will 2. Learn more - I sometimes hear stories of employees turning down free training. An employer offers to send you off to skills development training and you say no? Why would someone do that? Training offers opportunities to grow. It is also a good way to get away from the daily grind and give your mind some new ideas. But long term, it means more money in your pocket because you’ll develop new skills. 3. Take on the hard jobs - What are some of the jobs you can do well, but other people hate? For me, it’s marketing analytics (statistics). I love doing it, but others either don’t have the patience or simply hate the constant anylizing… By becoming the analytics guy, I become recession proof because if they get rid of me, then someone has to step up and do it. What “hard job” do you actually like that you can volunteer to do? By doing it, you become the hero, the person they have to keep around.

Recession proof your family

1. Get your spouse/partner to sign on - Family men and women, it’s critical to get your “better half” to sign on. If you are saving but your partner is spending, then you are countering each other’s efforts. Have a sitdown where you both can express your thoughts and feelings about money. Do you want to constantly be running from creditors? Or do you want a sense of freedom that financial independence provides? Talk it out and reach an agreement. 2. Teach your children to delay gratification - Kids want everything. It’s your job as a parent, or older sibling, to help teach them their wants will always exceed the money. This is a challenge when they face the pressure of other kids and their toys. I think the best way to do this is I teach my kids to make things. Whether it’s a woodcarving, origami, dream catchers or planting a terrarium, by making things, patience is a natural by product. Patience is also a key to to delaying gratification, obviously. And when they learn to build, they learn that they don’t necessarily have to buy something when they can make something of equal interest. 3. Involve your children in family savings goals - Help your kids learn not to spend every dime. When they get a gift from Aunt Rose or earn some money for vaccuming the floor, take a portion and put it into savings. For more articles on living your financial dreams subscribe to my RSS feed.

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