The Apprentice shares his favorite watering holes

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what some of the sites and blogs really successful people visit regularly. I mean, have you ever wondered what blogs Gates, Buffet, Branson or Madiba visit regularly to learn, or get encouragement? Well, i’m definitely not in the league of those dudes, yet; but i felt i’d share with you my favorite watering holes. I’m confident that alot of these will help any one grow their business, their relationships and themselves. So here it goes, in no particular order.

1.Crosswalk.com

A complete portal for Christian content, featuring blogs, devotions, financial, marital and career advice articles. This is where I start my day. Nothing like a fresh word from The Master to set my heart on the right path for the day. An excellent site.

2. The Art of Manliness

I am a man and true manly men in this day and age are an endangered species. This site is dedicated to recapturing and rekindling the dying art of being a man. I love it cause it breaks things down as simply and straightforward as can be. No being politically correct here. Just sweet, kick-in-the-butt advice on what Manliness is all about. A must read for all males!

3. Problogger & Daily Blog Tips

These are both community sites for professional bloggers. They have excellent articles on blog writing, monetization, SEO and memberships. A great resource for those who want to make a living or business from blogging.

4. Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development for smart people

This has to be my all time favorite blog for personal development resources. This guy has some questionable spiritual beliefs but overall, his insights and advice are timeless. I keep going back again and again to the archives section and always find something new to read and learn. Awesome resource. Highly recommended.

5. CNET Crave

This one appeals to my love of all things geeky, techy and gadgetry. It helps keep me informed about all the happenings around the globe. Considering that it’s a part of the CNET family, it’s a definate trusted source. A daily stop for technophiles.

6. Inc.com

A wonderful community for all things Entrepreneurial. It has articles, showcases, blogs and advice. It’s a great stop for inspiration and growth for small business owners.

7. Enterpreneurs Journey

A lovely site that appeals to both Entrepreneurs and Bloggers. Yaro Starak is accomplished in both these areas. He has a wonderful insight, avudde wwala (he’s come from far). He’s what you’d call a blogger entrepreneur, a guru in internet marketing. His posts are usually quite long but well worth the read.

8. Six Revisions & Hongkiat

I am by profession, a designer. Web, Graphic and Motion. These sites are a daily source for inspiration, trends and tutorials for me. A great help in my daily work. Highly recommended to all designers. DesignKingdom.ug is my own initiative to offer the same value to Ugandan artists, similar to these two sites.

9. Income Diary

A blog created by 20year old Michael Dunlop. It’s all about blogger entrepreneurs with interviews, advice, tips, success stories. I love this cause it makes an emphasis on showing you how you can live the internet lifestyle, those who are living it and how practically you too can live it. Inspiring is the word.

10. Darren Hardy’s blog

Darren is the editor of Success Magazine. His blog is obviously all about achieving success in all areas of your life. It’s updated only about once a week but a great resource nonetheless.

11. Dan Millers Blog

Dan is a Christian Entrepreneur and Life coach. As a Christian myself, it’s important to me to achieve my success in an honest and integrity based manner that glorifies The Master. Dan has excellent articles and posts that help me see what all other success gurus talk about in light of biblical principles. Love-lu-lay.

So ofcourse I have a ton of other sites I visit regularly but these are the ones i feel most drawn to regularly. I would advise everyone of you who visits tons of blogs to use Google Reader to effectively manage all your different feeds. Blogspirit will help you manage all your Ugandan blogs.

I’m always looking to add more wonderful resources to continue my personal growth and I would like to here from you. What are some of your daily reading lists?

Shalom

“Always keep learning. It keeps you young.”-Patty Berg

“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”-Eric Hoffer

“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence to see for themselves.” -Will Rogers

The 3 types of Entrepreneurs

As many of you who follow this blog know, i’m an avid reader of all things success & growth related. I am passionate about Entreprenuers who have changed the world, people like Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Larry Page & Sergey Brin among others. I study them, i try to emulate them, i definately want to make a positive impact on the world the way they have. But what is and entrepreneur exactly and why are there different types? I’m glad you ask.

What/Who is an Entrepreneur?

The classic definition of an Entrepreneur is “a person who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assuming the risk for the sake of the profit.”

An Entrepreneur can be anyone of any age who has an idea and builds a business around that idea to provide a product or service to as many people as need it. They see a need and fill it. They are passionate about their idea, product or service. They are visionaries. They tend to see opportunity where others don’t and this often leads them to take risks that most people wouldn’t.  The entrepreneur is at the heart and soul of progress, innovation and capitalism. Entrepreneurs create wealth and opportunity, not merely for themselves but for everyone around them as well. Entrepreneurs are sometimes born but more often, they are made. Any body can be an Entrepreneur. Why not you?

That being said, people are different with varied motivations hence the different types of Entrepreneurs. The top three types are;

The Wealth Creation Entrepreneur

This particular individual creates a business with the ultimate goal of reaching the largest available market whilst making the highest profit. These are the guys who build businesses like Google, Microsoft, Sony, Apple, Facebook and so on. These entrepreneurs generally make the Forbes list of wealthiest people in the world over and over again. They don’t think small, it’s not in their vocabulary. They deal with vast sums of money and are responsible for thousands and tens of thousands of peoples livelihoods. These guys are good for any country. Their bank accounts will usually start from 1million dollars a year to billions. They can be extremely innovative businesses that cahnge the way we see the world like Facebook, Twitter; or they can be pretty run of the mill like Wal-Mart or Toyota.

The Lifestyle Entrepreneur

This individual creates a business around their passions but their primary goal is not vast profits but rather a rich and flexible lifestyle.  A lifestyle entrepreneur doesn’t expect to make six figures a year doing what they love to do. They just want to be able to live their life doing what they love and being able to support themselves and their family as well. They are finding much happiness doing what they love to do. The business allows them to work extremely flexible hours, travel the world and afford a life that you associate with millionaires.

Interestingly enough, you wouldn’t actually need to make 1million dollars a year to live an exceptional lifestyle. If you do the maths, most of us probably don’t need more than $100,000 yearly to make a great life.

Most entrepreneurs fall in this category. An interesting sub category that has become quite popular with the establishment of the internet is the Internet Lifestyle Entrepreneur. He builds a business on the internet that allows him to work from anywhere at any time. This has manifested itself in the form of ProBlogging where one makes a business out of their blog and earns income from advertising or selling stuff through their blog.

The Social Entrepreneur

Now this one is quite interesting.  A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a wealth creation entrepreneur typically measures performance in terms of profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact on society as well as in profit and return. They often operate through non-profits or charities but increasingly, they are doing so from a private standpoint.

Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better.

One of the best examples of Social entrepreneurs is Muhammad Yunus, founder and manager of Grameen Bank in India, who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.  He essentially invented the concept of Micro finance banks by giving ridiculously small loans to poor people, even beggars and yet still managing a 95% repayment from borrowers. He definately changed the world of banking.

So there you have the three main types of Entrepreneurs. I personally gravitate to something in between Lifestyle and Wealth Creation. Richard Branson is my hero. Hell of a business man and hell of a life-ist too. What kind of entrepreneur are you?

Shalom