For the last 20 years, I have yearned for success, mostly business success.  Now I have some, I am also thinking about what price success?  I have increased some amount of my assets and my income, but of course, it took a toll too.  More and more, I find myself wishing that a little less responsibility and work ( even with less income) would actually be welcomed - something I had not wish when i was younger.

For the longest while, I was willing to pay a high price to move up.  But now, maybe because of age, or simply because priorities change, I am starting to think that maybe

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  This parable illustrates the constant need to upgrade our skills and to keep ‘updated’.

Maio Zhen was a scholar of the Song Dynasty ( 960 - 1279 AD) who had previously ranked fourth in the civil service exams. When there was a new court examination for new vacancies, he applied. The Prime Minister informed him, ” you have been an official for so many years. Before you take the exam, might as well spend some moments to review your literary skills, and some of the classics.”

Miao Zhen quite confidently replied, “Could an old midwife who’s been doing it for 30 years ever wrap a baby upside down?”

After the exam, he found out that he had indeed failed. When the prime minister met him, he smiled to Miao, and ask, “Miao, how could you have wrapped the baby upside down?”

Fame - I like a bit of Fame, but not of the celebrity sort - more to do with being known and talked about in good terms.

Money - yes but only because I have to earn it - ‘the game is the thing - the money is just a way of keeping score’

Power - only in terms of being in control of my own destiny rather than anything to do with power over others.

Influence - Yes very important - I get as much satisfaction from influencing and developing my staff as I do from influencing my customers.

But what is really important to me is ACHEIVEMENT - I use my business to fulfill that personal need more than anything.

This site points out movie mistakes, which can be a lot of fun if you are an avid movie fun.  Here is the page which shows the top rated mistakes of top rated pictures, as voted by the membership, with pictures.

One of the important things when you have a website is to know your number of visitors.  There are numerous sites that provides this.  I use statcounter, which you will see in the lower right hand of my blog. 

However, in blogs, you also will allow people to subscribe to your RSS feed( Really Simple Syndication), which essentially allows them the convenience of

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There was a time when young when I thought that management and attitude were the cure-alls.  Maybe I read too manyinspirational stories in which your determination beats the odds.  Now, maybe I am wiser, or maybe just older.  After so many years, I have formed the conclusion many now knew — sometimes, success just depends on luck, and sometimes, your industry and the economic scenario.  You can be a great manager who happened to be in an industry where the situation is really bad, and no amount of talent or determination can turn things around.  And many times, there are just so many bad managers who were just in the right place at the right time, and succeeded.

So, the first thing you need to know before embarking on a business is to know the industry you are in.  Is it a conservative industry, or is it a risky industry.  Is it in the period of growth,

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Now ,more than ever is a great time to be an entrepreneur.

Communication costs are lower, travel is easy, and moreover, people are starting to clam up because they think there will be a slowdown! 

Especially if you have cash!  It has always been a good rule of thumb that you don’t build when everybody is building, and you start accumulating when people start to slow down.

During slowdown, properties are cheaper, and recruiting is easier.

Blogs are everywhere.  Estimates today indicate there are more than over 50 million blogs.

Surveys completed in recent months by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that nearly a fifth of teens who have access to the Web have their own blogs

Blogs are where people vent their feelings, share their innermost thoughts, and also their secrets, and it is open to anybody in the world.

It creates an issue that what you confide in your blog now may come back to haunt you in the future.  There has been cases where a daughter who confessed allegedly of lesbian practices soon was easily traced to a father who wanted to run for public office.

With the ease of finding exact information, and tracing, it is best that people be cautious on what they confide for all the world to see.

According to Small Business Trends, a survey noted that, across sectors, 66 percent of new establishments were still in existence 2 years after their birth, and 44 percent were still in existence 4 years after.

It noted that most of the businesses do indeed have a higher rate of failure in the first 2 years.  The sector with the lowest rate of failure was in education and health services, while the highest rate of failure was in information technology.

If you are good in solving puzzles, Here are 2 sites that will challenge you.  I haven’t solve both of them.  Both work on the same concept. The first site is a little bit dark, and the second is outright darker - its called Dracula’s Riddle.  According to the web site, thousands have tried it, but only 17 have finished all.  Warning - this may not be something you can solve in less than  an hour.