To Give Is Not to Pay

Posted on July 31, 2010

Paying forward is a concept much related to paying back, or as philanthropists such as Zalman Silber are used to putting it, giving back. The reasoning behind it (more emotional than logical though it may be, it’s still a kind of reasoning) is that one gets as good as one gives. Of course, entirely altruistic motives may be present for some – but there is certainly no harm in the good will generated by the good publicity generated by the donation of one’s wealth towards communal edifices and institutions.

Not to single out Zalman Silber, of course; it is almost a rite of passage for a businessman to donate money. Indeed, there is no truer sign of having “made it” than being able to give large amounts of cash away. But isn’t it curious how much of this money ends up in the hands of religious institutions and political campaigns? Yes, yes, it’s their money and they can do with it whatever they wish – but we’re merely wondering aloud here, not claiming no one has a right to do with their own money anything they wish (so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone).

The concept of paying it forward means to set in motion a chain of events whereby complete strangers are helped out without any chance of reward or recompense for the helper. Someone needs bus fare? You help him or her out. That’s it. Nothing expected in return – except that he or she help someone else when they can, another stranger whom they would never meet again.

Sounds silly, no? People helping one another out for nothing at all, no fame, no public acclaim, no networking or connections made, nothing. Not simply donating to some esteemed charity and getting your name on a building somewhere, but just giving money away to complete strangers who need it with no more than the admonition to “pay it forward,” for them to help others out as well.

Do businessmen do this? Or do they only help their own? Is it a great credit to a man to help out his own family, his own friends, his own people? The great thing about paying it forward is that it is completely anonymous and totally thankless from a businessman’s bottom-line mentality. Money – or anything else, really – is given, and that’s all. It is about as true an act of altruism as possible, performed towards a complete stranger whom one would not ever expect meeting again and from whom one there is no indication of any reward or thanks. Truly paying it forward is almost Christian in its altruism and, even, sacrifice, though of course many cultures have long recognized the concept as one which distinguishes true giving from mere payment.

Measure The Networth Of Your Company Before You Sell Your Company

Posted on July 31, 2010

To sell your company is one of the most gut-wrenching decisions you will ever face as an entrepreneur. Even without any sentimentality on your part – all of the round-the-clock research, all of the round-the-clock legwork, all that heavy lifting, now come to this, washing your hands of it all – the prospect of timing it all just right could be nerve-wracking. You will feel like some television game show guest, at a pivotal moment during you can opt to cash out or stay on for more.

Except it’s even worse than that! For there are a hundred and one factors involved when you want to sell your company, so many different variables at play – just like when you first started up the business, come to think of it!

And if you have any venture capital on board, good luck; your investors will generally be the first to cash out and get their cut (unless they’re, rather more simply, buying out your share).

For instance, let’s say you own a full one hundred percent of your business and wish to sell your company but you haven’t yet looked into what it could be worth because you’ve been too busy simply growing the business (unless you’re one of these serial entrepreneurs who love to start up companies but hate to run them once things settle down).

You’ve now arrived at one of these so-called inflection points, a time when getting the company to the next stage of success involves considerable risk and lots of time and money. If you were unlucky enough to have desperately needed investors, you will need to first double revenues and pray for stable market conditions to ensure that you are able to make as much money on a sale as you could have without those investors – who, remember, will want their cut first.

Stylish GSM Cell Phones

Posted on July 30, 2010

GSM cell phones are the most widely used in the entire world. Estimates suggest that the common includes some 80% of all cell phones in use around the globe. And while GSM cell phones are a all-pervasive feature of 1st world countries, it is their existence in far less “civilized” areas that best demonstrates the reach and effect of modern communications.

Imagine Somalia: a large, desert country on the eastern horn of Africa which in the past 20 years has been wracked simply by civil war along with famine. Bombed out bullet riddled cities dot the barren landscape where for thousands of years, nomads have roamed the desert herding goats along with camels across hundreds of miles from pastures in the rainy season to market in the dry season. Even practical measures of distance here do not stick to the metric or imperial principles employed by the rest of the world.

Nomad calculate distance by units referred to as a Gedi: the distance a browsing herd animal can travel in a single day, which changes every season relying on the physical strength of each herd. Even working automobiles are hard to find here, let alone something sophisticated as a GSM cell phone. Yet the simple application of GSM cell phones, which we in the west have long taken for granted, has proven incredibly practical to this nomadic lifestyle.

For years, Somali herdsmen have followed an annual pattern. By the end of the year as soon as the dry season arrives, they migrate from the more fertile fields elsewhere in the country, across the desert, to coastal cities where they can promote their stock in the markets to traders from the Middle East and in other places. Keeping their animals in pens within the cities while they arrange a sale is incredibly costly, as they will have to continue to feed and water their herd with stores provided for by community merchants at obscene rates. They have no option. However, GSM cell phones have allowed them to forego this method.

A Somali nomad, a man wearing hand sewn clothes which he has probably worn for all of his life, carrying a staff in the traditional posture – horizontally over his shoulders, his arms resting atop – a person who sleeps on a mat of thatched grass beneath the stars, beside a fire he created by his own, can now merely make a phone call and prepare the sale of his herd in advance. Rather than lingering in the city for several days, expending what meager wealth he has on preserving his herd there, hoping his sale can recoup his losses and even turn a profit, he can now simply set up to have a buyer all set for him the minute he arrives. Such high technology might appear incredibly unnatural in Somalia, but it’s application is flawlessly suited to the needs of a nomad.

Article Marketing Services And Their Benefits

Posted on July 30, 2010

Article marketing services are used to generate backlinks to websites, causing them to rank higher in the search engines for their preferred keywords. Users submit articles that are in turn submitted to many various websites. These websites link back to the user’s website, creating the effect that his is a legitimate authority on the subject.

Article marketing services understand that search engines look for relevancy when determining rank on their results page. They know that relevancy is in large part determined by the number of backlinks citing a selected website. As Google’s founder put it, it’s like when an academic paper is cited by others. A student himself at the time, he understood that relevancy online can function in the same manner reputation does in academia.

Article marketing services were born soon thereafter to take advantage of this insight. Of course, Google has since gone on to be much more complex in how they compute relevancy, making them the one search engine most resistant to gaming, but the heart of their algorithms is still informed by such notions. Hence, it is possible to set up your own network of websites that link back to a site you’d like to promote, creating an authoritative impression.

This is what article marketing services do. Your article shows up on all the sites that make up their network. So suppose you sell widgets. You write an article on widgets, including backlinks to your site associating your keyword, “widgets,” with your site “widgets.com.” Now using an article marketing service, your article on widgets gets published by all the sites in the network. This creates the impression, to search engines, that your article is being cited by all these various places – surely you must be an authority on the matter!

Surely, just as it doesn’t help to be cited by a no-name publisher in academia, nor does it help to have just any ol’ website host your article. And thus, when selecting an article marketing service it’s crucial to use one that has a network of powerful sites, websites already well-regarded by the search engines. After all, who would you trust to learn more about widgets from, a website that just came online a week ago or a website that has been around for years?

And not just that, in fact, but a website that may itself be cited by other well-regarded sites (“cited” as per the number of quality backlinks it itself bears), or a website that is devoted exclusively to widgets and covers nothing else, or a website that…you get the idea.

It’s about trust.

So when selecting an article marketing service to use, it’s crucial that the company actually maintains not just a network, but a quality network, one that will provide your site with quality backlinks which cause search engines to regard your site with favor.

NY Yankees Clocks To NY Yankees Flags

Posted on July 30, 2010

NY Yankees merchandise is a lot more popular than ever now that The Boss has left the stadium. Many are the opportunities – in fact, more numerous than ever before, it would seem, as a casual glance around online and off suggests – to sell everything from an NY Yankees flag to a NY Yankees clock, only now with Steinbrenner’s own mug along with the team logo.

Indeed, a disinterested observer may even mistake him for the Yankees mascot, given the ubiquity of images since his passing! NY Yankees merchandise is a big business, and it was Steinbrenner himself who made it so. Like no other club owner, he turned an already storied brand into a literal franchise, complete with its own cable television channel.

Steinbrenner revolutionized the business of baseball by being the very first owner to capitalize on other ways of making money beyond the games themselves. Under his stewardship, the NY Yankees went from a ten million-dollar outfit to one worth over a billion.

The business of the Yankees may now change under the helm of his two sons, particularly Hank, who is said to resemble his father very much in temperament. But merchandising deals are expected to proceed as they ever have, with a slew of goods bearing the famed team logo and cap insignia – and now, for a while yet at least, the face of the man who has been most often associated with the ball club for nearly four decades.

Indeed, it would be fitting should he become a brand in himself now, as in some ways he almost was in life. Charismatic CEOs transcend their companies, and one wonders whether The Boss himself may be looking down on his most successful business venture this very moment, even as he was wont to do in life.

A Variety Of Camping Tents

Posted on July 28, 2010

A great camping tent will make the difference between fun and misery. Camping is a favorite outdoor activity, and though some folks make no use of any tent or overnight shelter at all, under most circumstances it is going to be a much much more enjoyable experience when not assailed by the elements. Thus a camping tent is going to be one of the most essential pieces of equipment on hand, and when in the marketplace some basic factors should be considered.

First and foremost, figure out whether free-standing designs or traditional ones are most appropriate. Much thought and care needs to be taken at this initial step, as for solitary trips no one will be around to help pitch and strike a tent. Fabric material is one more important factor when shopping for a suitable camping tent. Most items available on the marketplace today will be made of cotton canvas, nylon, felt, or polyester.

Cotton absorbs water but is, ironically, then rendered waterproof when its fibers swell and create a seal against further drenching, in effect. Cotton is also often treated to further enhance its water-resistant qualities. Then you have synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester, which are significantly lighter in weight and tend to whisk away water, made all the more water-resistant and even waterproof through the application of special coatings. Regrettably, these will also deteriorate over time under sunlight.

When considering the water resistance of a camping tent, look to its hydrostatic head rating. Tent fabrics are rated in millimeters, and numbers of 1000mm or less are deemed shower resistant while extreme conditions such as monsoons may call for ranges in between 3000 to over 5000mm, particularly where groundsheets are concerned. There are a handful of other factors when it comes to tent fabrics, but this discussion covers a couple of the most important and should serve to stimulate further research on your own.

Halloween Party Supplies Make For a Terrifyingly Good Time

Posted on July 27, 2010

Halloween party supplies are important to a excellent October bash, and also the variety of merchandise obtainable rivals that accessible for Christmastime. It is one from the most beloved traditions inside the United States, which popularity is likely due in no small part to its versatility, a versatility reflected within the diverse selection of cheap party supplies available, from cutesy ones for kids to individuals with sexual overtones where adults are concerned!

Such a wide range of choices means a wide range of prices for Halloween party supplies and decorations, with the a lot more elaborate ones costing a lot whilst easy stuff like themed napkins and disposable plates are barely any much more expensive than regular everyday varieties. To host a successful Halloween get-together, 1 must very first consider the audience. Probably the most challenging settings are those mixing kids and adults. The emphasis is nearly often on the kids, with friendly-looking decorations and costumes. But depending on the program, a lot more adult-oriented themes may be presented, too – say, at a diverse time or a diverse element of the apartment or house.

Kids’ parties are usually easy to plan, but those for adults require rather more creativity than not. That’s why numerous adult Halloween parties carry sexual overtones, from Lil’ Red Riding Hood and Large Bad Wolf costumes to sadomasochistic and bondage wear and gear!

It’s interesting to take into account that a day devoted towards the dead must involve sex at all, which is usually how life continues. But it does make sense, for death can be a component of life. The ancient Gaels, whose Samhain holiday is typically regarded as the precursor of our modern-day Halloween, believed that this time of year, after the harvest, at the onset of early winter, is when the worlds from the living and the dead blur, thus allowing for passage from one to the other.

Today’s adult-themed Halloween parties might be seen as a reflection, probably more unconscious than conscious, of that attitude. Death itself could be, ironically enough, highly arousing, as witnessed by the number of babies born during periods of war or other national strife. On a extremely primitive level, our human psychology understands nothing much more than procreation, a motivation we share with everything from fleas and amoeba to lions and baboons. In times of agitation, it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective to reproduce whatever way it is possible to – whilst you still have the chance, given the death all around.

The Importance Of Gun Safes For Firearms And Ammunition

Posted on July 26, 2010

Gun safes are used to keep firearms and ammunition secure under lock and key. They prevent access and, in more robust models, prevent damage as well, most importantly during such catastrophes as flood or fire. Electronic locks as well as mechanical ones are obtainable, though the mechanical variety is regarded to possess the highest of reliability. They are, however, much more time-consuming to open, which may be a factor in emergency situations.

Gun safes used to be created with looks in mind, and were as much a method to display one’s collection as they were to store it. Legal obligations in several jurisdictions have since placed an emphasis on safety and security, and several safes today are built to blend into their surroundings or be otherwise invisible. For example, some such safes can now be installed inside a closet or wardrobe, hidden behind a false wall. But old-fashioned display cases and cabinets are still obtainable, with modified security features, for the avid collector eager to show off.

Whatever the style or purpose, however, such safes, cases, and cabinets should always be locked after use and should even be, where possible, bolted down, as the heaviest part of many designs is the door itself which, in the absence of firearms and munitions, may tip the whole structure over. Indeed, safety is an important aspect of modern firearms ownership, and such considerations concern not only the quality of construction or thoughtfulness of design but installation and placement as well. Thus many individuals will order “white glove” services along with their safes, with professional setup and installation to ensure that no detail is compromised in creating a gun-safe environment!

Gun safes are a necessary part of the sport these days, and legally mandated in those places that even allow for the hobby. Owners can best vouchsafe their rights to firearms ownership by displaying not their weapons but their common-sense concerns for safety and security with well-made and placed gun safes.

Espresso Machines Are Just the Beginning

Posted on July 24, 2010

Home espresso machines have now become the stuff of late-night television infomercials, with any variety of bells and whistles for “only four installments of fifty-five ninety-five!” or so. But can such relatively simple models, when viewed against their cousins found in industry, be truly up to the job of producing genuine caffè espresso as Luigi Bezzera had first introduced to the world back in 1903?

How is it possible for espresso machines that are so much smaller to turn out the same product? Something is different between hardware that costs a few hundred and one that costs several thousand, of course. But the difference concerns, typically, not quality but quantity.

Commercial espresso makers have of necessity to be all the more rugged, reliable hundreds of times a day. Home versions, on the other hand, need satisfy only several cups at most each day. From the best examples of each class, the quality of the output should be very similar. The main, if not only, distinguishing feature between such espresso machines should be the volume of output you may expect of them on an everyday basis.

But obviously, the term “espresso” only refers to the method of brewing, and not to anything else beyond that. So, as long as your coffee is made by forcing pressurized hot water through finely ground beans, you have espresso, and any type of machine should do, whether designed for private or commercial use. What really makes espresso coffee so fun to have is what happens after you brew it!

For there is actually a bewildering variety of ways that espresso coffee may be served: try it affogato with ice cream, or corretto with liquor; mix any assortment of beans and roast levels, too – from syrups and spices to a whole host of flavor extracts, just brewing your espresso is simply the beginning!

The Harbour City from the Air

Posted on July 24, 2010

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. And when in Sydney, Australia, you do the Skywalk, a one-of-a-kind experience from serial entrepreneur and success story Zalman Silber. It’s a must-see and must-experience that is first on many an out-of-towner’s itinerary, for nowhere else will you be able to walk outside a skyscraper and look straight down – literally.

Zalman Silber’s Skywalk is simply a glass-floored catwalk, a bit like the fire-escapes of many an old-styled New York City tenement. The only real difference, which makes all the difference in the world at almost a thousand feet up above the ground, is that instead of walking on metal grating you would be walking on nothing more than glass. Glass! The very thought might shatter some nerves, and indeed visitors are very careful to walk gingerly – though of course everything is as safe as can be, with guests attired in special “sky suits” that are securely tethered by cables to the metal handrails.

It’s easy to imagine the excitement, but altogether different when you experience it first-hand. But while first, as previously mentioned, on many a visitor’s agenda, it is by no means the last, for there are many, many other things to do and see in the Harbour City. Though not as heart-stopping as the Skywalk, the Sydney Opera House is much more famous and will also take your breath away, though in a rather more cerebral manner.

As the site of the first British settlement on the island-continent, Sydney has had a long time to come up with a variety of interesting attractions for both residents and visitors alike. It is, after all, an international locus of commerce, arts, fashion, culture, entertainment, education, and of course tourism. Being the country’s largest and most heavily populated city, you would expect nothing less. And so the city hosts over two million guests a year with world-famous attractions such as the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Australian Museum, and the Sydney Tower, site of Zalman Silber’s Skywalk.

When in Sydney, be sure to take a walk on the Skywalk. It is the only way to see the city from the air with nothing between you and the air. No glass windows, no thick railing. Only the Sydney weather at a thousand feet above the street. Only at the Sydney Tower. Only on the Skywalk from Zalman Silber.

The Sydney Tower Skywalk. Bringing you to Sydney. Bringing Sydney to you.