Some great quotes and stats I picked up while going about everyday task:

- from janet flanner: genius is immediate but talent takes time

- from Marion Blakey: you can’t leave a footprint that lasts if you’re walking on tiptoe.

- from  bill gates: success is a lousy teacher. It seduces people into thinking they can’t lose.
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The last three months, i have been pretty much occupied in trying to be ‘funny’.  This is in line with my thinking of going into the Blue Ocean Strategy.  Do something other people are not doing.  Take the Road Less Travelled.  So instead of funneling resources to usual marketing, we decided to use it to sponsor our own Toons which when popular, will help also create our company brand.

It has been a great learning experience, and I want to share some of my reflections, as well as answer some questions.  Launching a brand ( humorous at that) is like any business venture and I would like to relate some of the things i learned to the general business.

Why call it eNGy?

Its a branding initiative.  Last 2005, we decided to launch a computer chain store which we called NGenius.  NGenius ( which is a play of my family name) was a unique name, and it is a word that means innovation, solution to a problem, being cool!  Our slogan became “Its NGenius! The Latest word for cool! ” as the stores were predominantly selling gadgets for the new generation.

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Top one is worth $150 million.  The 25th one is less than $1 million.  This is still, I think, new territory….

24/7 Wall St.: The Twenty-Five Most Valuable Blogs

We looked at unique visitor and page view measurement services when possible: Alexa, Compete, and Quantcast. These services are often criticized for estimating website traffic too low. We have tried to take that into account. We also looked at data at blogs which gave their own ad rates and page views. Our estimated page CPMs are based on quality of ads and number of ads on each page. We looked at margins based on headcount and our opinion of how may of the people are full-time. Current growth rate based on our measurement sources was also taken into account. A site with traffic doubling year-over-year was give a higher multiple than one with flat traffic.

Here is one of the products of some reflection during the Lenten Season.

Sometimes we become too busy and engrossed in our little goals that we forget really what are our main objectives in life…

You may browse for more of our toons in our new business cartoon humor website, Its NGenius, and also download free one page wallpapers like this here.

- data centers are now euphemistically called data smelters because the centes eat up as much electricity as an aluminum smelting plant.

- while most financial stocks were falling, JP morgan gained 10%.  It was able to get Bear Stearns on the cheap. In a sea of trouble, it helps to be perceived as stable or cash rich.  I remember that many of the best companies triumph in times of prosperity by being able to consolidate, buy, or train assets on the cheap when times are bad.

- How to become entrepreneur? Have friends who are. study shows their influence is strong force in entrepreneurial aspirations.

-In the US, students receiving undergrad compsci degrees is the lowest in10 years, according to the Computing Research Association.

- Invention is not the same as innovation. Creating something new does not become an innovation until it earns money

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Our local news reported that a man, 75 years old stabbed his wife in a fit of anger and tried to attack his grandson before finally being subdued by his son, 52 years old.

His wife 67, was rushed to the hospital, but died along the way.

If it weren’t so tragic, it would have been food for humor.  Man could not control himself anymore after 52 years….

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Prosperity <> Happiness?

If w can search for outstanding scientist, or entrepreneur, why not happiest person?

Channelnewsasia.com

A local consulting firm is looking for Singapore’s happiest person. It is part of an effort to organise a well-being conference, which will be held in April.

Singapore, with a number one airport and one of the busiest ports in the world, tops the charts in various areas. But when it comes to happiness, a recent survey found that nine in 10 Singaporeans are stressed out.

- There are 1,125 billionaires today, and their total worth is $4.4 trillion.  Their worth is up by $900 billion compared to last year, which just goes to show that rich people grow their wealth faster than most of us.

- US has 469 billionaires. Second is russia with 87 of them! 70% of the world’s billionaires are either from US, russia, china, or india.

- Of the 10 richest, 4 from india, 2 from USA, 1 each from sweden,germany, russia and mexico.

- Asia has 211 billionaires. India has the most with 53, china 42, Hong Kong 26, while japan only 24.  Although if you consider china and Hong Kong as one country, then it has the most billionaires at 68.

- youngest billionaire is mark zuckerberg, founder of facebook, who at 23 is worth $1.5 billion

- He made the list even if forbes discounted the value. Microsoft bought a minority stake valuing facebook at $15 billion. Forbes valued the company at only $5 billion, which means Mark, who owns 30% is worth $1.5 billion.  If that is the real value, then Microsoft overpaid by over a hundred million dollars for the stake.  But then what is a hundred million to Microsoft.

I’ve worked with an artist to fine tune my NGenius toons, and you should find the graphics much better. I thought the name Its NGenius was a little bit too long, and have renamed it eNGy, the name of the main character It is now in a new website which allows you also to concentrate on reading business toons and navigating much better.

I’ve also taken time to put some of the toons in one image eNGy posters you might want to download, put in your newsletters, or use as wallpaper for free.

The new toons are also available through RSS by subscribing here.