While it’s been long thought that colors can affect our mood and productivity, what about scents? Can filling a room with a specific scent help you focus or work more productively? I can understand that some of you might be skeptical. I was at first too, but office aromatherapy has been effective at helping me get through the work day for years.

I’ve always been a fan of aromatherapy, surrounding myself with candles, incense, and scented oils. I work at home, so I can alter the scents around me at any time without worrying about upsetting other employees. I knew two scents in particular had an effect on me–pine and pumpkin. I tended to be more alert when I burned pine candles (they would help me get through afternoon lulls for instance). Pumpkin was a scent that relaxed me, so I often burned those candles in the evening.

There was Something to This Scent Thing

I didn’t really think much about it. I just burned certain candles when I felt certain ways. But one day I came across a news article. It discussed a Japanese study on pine scent and productivity. In essence, the researchers evaluated the productivity of employees with and without pine scent being put through the office ventilation system, and they found that employees worked more productively with a light pine scent in the air.

It interested me to see my own casual experiences backed up by a study, so I started experimenting with other scents in my own work life as well as researching the effects commonly associated with various scents in aromatherapy.

Credit: Spencer Ritenour

At that point, I started making more conscious decisions about what scents to burn when I was working. I could barely get through the afternoon hours without a pine candle burning. Another scent that ultimately worked for me was cinnamon. I found that cinnamon incense helped me focus better on creative projects (even though it’s a scent I don’t typically enjoy).

The key was experimentation. While some scents have common associations, they may not affect everyone in the same way. Try a few yourself (if you’re able to), and see how your mood and productivity change. To help you get started, here are some scents and the effects they’re commonly believed to have in aromatherapy:

Pine - To increase alertness

Cinnamon - To improve focus

Lavender - To relax during a stressful work day

Peppermint - Another scent thought to perk you up

Citrus (any) - To wake you up (another scent when you need to be more alert)

These are some of the more readily available scents that would have a potentially positive effect in the workplace. You can certainly experiment with others to find out which make for the most appealing work environment for you.

Aromatherapy in the Workplace Without Offending Others

If you work in an office with other employees, you probably won’t be permitted to burn candles or incense. You also may upset coworkers if you’re releasing any kind of strong scent into the shared workspace (such as through scented oils). However, there are a few options you can try that won’t create an overpowering aroma, but which you still might find effective. Give these ideas a try:

Credit: Jenny Rollo

1. Scented oil on a cotton ball – Put a few drops of a scented oil onto a cotton ball and tuck it in a desk drawer or somewhere out of the way on your desk. Just don’t use too much oil, and you can avoid an overpowering aroma coming from your work area. You could do the same with a lightly scented sachet.
2. Aromatic plants – If you’re allowed to keep a small plant on your desk, it could be a solution. For example, if you have a stressful job you might want to keep a small pot of lavender.
3. Terra cotta with scented oil - Even if you keep a non-aromatic plant on your desk, try to keep it in a terra cotta pot (or keep a small terra cotta plate or ornament around). Put a few drops of scented oil on it. The terra cotta absorbs the oil, dispersing the scent slowly as it eventually dries.

Try to be sensitive to your employees or coworkers if you decide to experiment with scents in a populated workplace. A scent that affects you positively may annoy someone else, and there’s always a possibility that someone will have an allergy to a plant or specific oil. Always get your employer’s permission to use aromatherapy in the workplace. Otherwise you may need more than the right scent to improve your or your colleagues’ moods.

It represents the brand and makes sure it is remembered.

Therefore if you don’t pay enough attention to your business card, it means you are screwing up one of the most essential parts of your brand identity.

While there are a wealth of creative designs, this post looks at those that represents the business visualizing what it does:

Can you guess what this person is doing? I bet you can once you see the business card:

Another way to create an association with the stylist: a comb:

A business card representing what the company is doing: can you think of anything else than "stamps" when you are looking at it?

This is more abstract but still works like a charm associating it with the person’s service:

Simplistic one, yet it speaks for itself:

A good way to demonstrate why you need a personal trainer – to have enough strength to stretch the business card:

A similar idea: if you can’t inflate the balloon, you definitely need help of the chest physician:

Why tell people you sell office furniture, when you can show them.

What can demonstrate the lawn enhancement business more vividly than a few seeds inside?

100% wool – definitely

Teeth marks or a business card weaved with dental floss is a good way to show what you do.

Another great idea for a dentist’s business card: a demonstration of a cured tooth:

The best way to show you are a mechanical engineer

A nice way to visualize a break-up:

This one just needs no comment:

And this one even looks scary:

Post image by kvanhorn

If you’re wondering what these companies have in common – they all have operations outside of the United States. Barack Obama reiterated in no uncertain terms that there will be no tax breaks for companies creating jobs outside US.

Recently, at a White House meeting that was meant to reveal the tax reforms to ensure American multinationals start paying corporate taxes and keep jobs within the US, President Obama spoke strongly about the existing US system, giving the example of India. He said, it encourages paying “lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York.”

Under the existing US tax code, American companies with subsidiaries in foreign countries, do not have to pay US taxes on the profits from their subsidiaries until the time when money is transferred back to the US. As long as the money earned is put back into the foreign subsidiaries, they can avoid paying taxes and US businesses take advantage of this “loophole” as many call it, in the tax code. This means creating more jobs in other countries where the subsidiaries exist.

The change in plan, revealed by Obama is to prevent US firms from enjoying foreign tax credits on income that is not subject to US taxes. Also the firms that are now able to shift income legally from one foreign subsidiary to another, to avoid taxes, cannot do so anymore.

According to Obama, the existing tax code acts as an incentive for US companies to invest overseas instead of providing jobs within the US. The government hopes to raise $210 billion in tax revenue in ten years, with the implementation of the new plan.

Under the new plan, US companies with foreign subsidiaries will lose all tax credits and will be have to cough up more tax.

Obama said during the White House announcement, “I want to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world. But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits to overseas tax havens.”

Experts say that a wide-range of companies will be impacted by the changes, from banking institutions to hedge funds, from technology companies to pharmaceuticals.

Drew Lyon, a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Washington office who is a tax policy advisor for Fortune 500 companies says, “It’s really hitting most Fortune 100 companies that depend to a great deal on growth of foreign markets for growing their total earnings. About half of multinationals companies’ income is earned abroad.”

Proponents of these tax changes say that they have also been expecting the top U.S. corporate tax rate to be reduced, since most other countries have lower corporate tax rates. They feel that foreign tax credit changes alone will most likely be a discouragement for companies to invest in the US. There also has to be a reduction in corporate rate, which would help create jobs in the United States because then there would not be a huge advantage for businesses to move to countries that are tax friendly.

Tax policy experts agree with this and say that these measures, unless accompanied by a reduction in the corporate tax rate, will only have the opposite effect of companies moving their operations, as well as jobs, overseas to more tax friendly countries.

Opponents within the Obama government and several business groups have already started lobbying against this to kill any attempts at increasing taxes on overseas profits. They say that such a move would only make American companies less competitive.

Foreign companies are not really worried with this stance taken by the President and heave a sigh of relief. This is because these tax proposals have nothing to do with off shoring or outsourcing. They say that the proposals appear to be aimed at addressing the tax rate differentials that exist across the world. It will impact only American headquartered companies with operations overseas.

Several analyst firms in the US are of the opinion that it is shortsighted to think that outsourcing is reversible and cutting tax breaks will help in the creation of jobs in the US. They feel that the consequences of such a move engulfing different countries can be larger than the current recessionary scenario.

Colors can change our mood, make us work or feel tired – imagine, your room colors may be the reason for your bad productivity or lower creativity! The human eye sees about 7,000,000 colors.

Certain colors and color relationships can irritate, cause headaches, or make you feel sick. Other colors and color combinations are healing and soothing.

Consequently, the appropriate use of color can maximize productivity, minimize visual fatigue, and relax the whole body. Here are some basics to start from:

Now, just a few details to support the data listed in the table:

Red:

It may look weird that while making you more energetic and excited, this color also makes you more productive and attentive to details. This phenomenon is explained the following way:

“When you feel that the situation you are in is problematic,” said Norbert Schwarz, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, “you are more likely to pay attention to detail, which helps you with processing tasks but interferes with creative types of things.”

Blue:

By contrast, when people are calm, balanced and in a happy mood, they are more creative and less analytic. Hence if you need to get more creative, blue is the right choice for you. Blue also suppresses appetite, so if you have bad time concentrating because of the frequent breaks for some snacks, surround yourself with blue and you will get more organized.

Compare:

Want to see for yourself, compare then: Which one looks more delicious?

and

Which one makes you more relaxed / energetic?

and

Post images by janerc, FlickrJunkie, ruurmo , colormatters, flod, B G

More on colors: How Color Choices in Stores Can Influence Your Shopping Decisions

The world starts going crazy… So how not to get lost? Get organized!

First, define what things keep you busy every day

Day by day, you watch your time spent nowhere and you feel you no more have any control over it. Now, sit down, grab a notebook and a pen and create a list of things you do every day. Mine is going to look something like this:

• Checking email box, killing spam, replying to some messages and sorting other for later references;
• Checking all your active social media accounts (Twitter replies, Facebook inbox, StumbleUpon shares…);
• Checking all recent blog posts (are there any comments outside the site itself? on Twitter, Digg, Reddit, etc);
• Checking morning business news, Digg and Reddit front page, etc
• Looking for some material for new blog posts, brainstorming for new post idea (lots of coffee here!)
• Doing some client work, creating daily reports for clients;
• Talking to online friends and partners;
• Checking my feed reader (especially those blogs which are updated daily).

Ok, going through this list, it seems I definitely need more than 24 hours a day… Ok, now let’s figure how to manage all those things and to get everything done.

Track your time

Time is much more important than money to me because time has limits while money doesn’t. Therefore I need to economize. The first step is to identify how much time each task takes me. There are plenty of paid and free tools for that (including your own watch) but I just use the simplest one:

Time Tracker is quick to register. Its most useful feature is the ability to set time tracking fir each task – for you to know how much time each task takes.

Start using time-management tools

TaDaList

TaDaList is quick and easy to register and offers sleek minimalistic interface. The best features include:

• Publish your lists for everyone to see them;
• Invite collaborators to create and edit lists together.

Remember The Milk

RememberTheMilk is a much more advanced than the above one productivity tool for those who are more serious about their time tracking. Its best (free) features include:

• Use advanced search to look for your tasks;
• Create notes to stick to any task;
• Add more users to manage or watch your to-do lists;
• Set time you plan to spend on any task;
• Set email notifications;
• Integrate it with Gmail or Google calendar.

Todoist

Todoist looks much simpler it really is. There are plenty of hidden features that really make it my favorite time-management tool:

• Handy FireFox sidebar for easier and quicker access;
• Multi-color projects for to-do lists visualization;
• Cool format syntax;
• Create labels ross referencing all your projects.

So:

• Identify your task;
• Measure time;
• Plan your day.

And you will succeed!

Good luck!

Post image by Michel Filion

The $787 billion stimulus plan is intended to make a difference to the economy and bring it out of recession, and is said to be the largest single stimulus payment ever made, with an estimated 55 million seniors, retirees and others are being benefited from $13 billion of the federal budget.

These checks will go out in a phased manner until June 4, 2009, mostly to Social Security and SSI recipients. The other beneficiaries include disabled veterans and railroad retirees, whose funds will be released separately by the respective agencies that serve them.

The stimulus bill passed in February in favor of this one-time boost for senior Americans to help them overcome this economic recession provides many exciting moments for all those people who will see their bank accounts swell by $250.

This stimulus money will be sent in a similar fashion to how each of them receives their regular Social Security or Supplemental Security Income money. If someone has opted to receive their SS check in mail, this $250 will also be sent to their mail. These days, since more and more people are using direct deposit, such people will see the money in their bank accounts immediately.

Even with the government trying to do its best to improve life for the Americans, there is an ongoing debate over how these stimulus payments will be spent by those people who are hard pressed for money. What affect will this money have on the overall economy?

Towards this end, all the seniors who receive the stimulus money have been asked to send an email detailing how they plan on using their $250. The email replies included, saving the money and paying off debts, but with the majority of them saying they would just spend it. The various things people wanted to buy were; paint, furniture, clothes or school supplies for the grandkids among other things.

While all those millions of people are being benefited with this stimulus money, there are some categories that do not fit the bill.

There is no chance of getting two $250 checks if the person is eligible for both Social Security and SSI. However, if a person is married, both spouses can get stimulus checks, if both are eligible.

Although, children below the age of 18 who receive Social Security benefits are not eligible for this stimulus money, adult children who receive disability benefits on their parent’s records are being sent this money. Similarly, disabled children who are receiving SSI will receive this money.

With lots of people being confused over who exactly is receiving these one-time recovery checks, here is a list of people who will not receive them, unless an exception is made by the government for some reason:

• People who are living outside the United States
• Those that are not lawfully present in the United States
• Individuals whose benefits are suspended by law for some reason
• Minor children who are Social Security beneficiaries
• SSI beneficiaries who will receive benefits at a reduced rate of $30, because they are currently living in a hospital or nursing home and Medicaid pays about 50% for their care
• People who can only get Medicare and not to SS or SSI benefits
• Prisoners, probation and parole violators and fugitive felons

This recovery payment is just one of the several benefits that American people will soon see flowing to individuals under the economic stimulus plan. There will be a boost by $25/week towards unemployment benefits. Then there is the $400 “Making Work Pay” tax credit that will add a good sum to the moderate paychecks. This means that every US tax payer with an annual income up to $75,000 would be eligible for a 6.2% tax credit up to $400, for married couples it will be $800. Food stamp allotments are expected to see a 13.6 percent increase. Workers who were laid off since September 2008 will be able to extend their health insurance provided by their employers through COBRA, with the federal government picking up 65% of the cost for nine months.

The Obama administration encourages this stimulus money to the seniors, to be spent rather than being saved in a bank account. Since many of the recipients live paycheck to paycheck, they hope that the cash is funneled back into the economy soon.

NetApp

This company specializes in proprietary network storage and data management. They have more than 130 offices throughout the world. It is ranked high, at the very top for being the best employer because of the workplace quality and the high-trust culture that is part of the organization.

The company management believes in maintaining a great rapport with employees and taking care of their every need, being completely supportive in every way and at all times. This generosity is taken to heart by the employees and makes the company one of the best-networked organizations.

Edward Jones

This company, with managing partner James D. Weddle at the helm, offers financial products for individual investors and currently have more than 7 million clients, with 10,800 offices in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom.

Culture: Their main focus is training and they provide an average of 149 hours of training each year to their employees, which is said to be far greater than the average of 45. The best part is that employees are not just trained for the job they are in, but are also allowed to develop new skills. Even the fact that employees can seek employment elsewhere with these skills does not deter the management. They believe in their philosophy that employees who are passionate about their job enjoy working for the company.

Boston Consulting Group

BCG is a private global management consulting firm and is a leading business strategy advisor. It has spread its business throughout the world in 37 countries, apart from 66 offices in the US itself.

This company maintains a completely employee focused culture with their main attention being training. Employees are given ample opportunities to learn and take on responsibility. Associates that return to the company after completing their MBA cannot have it any better, as they are reimbursed their tuition fee in full, given a promotion and an increase in salary.

Google

With CEO Eric Schmidt handling the affairs, Google is going places. Their main business as we all know is Internet search services, and also business solutions, blogging, social networking, online mapping, email, advertising and video sharing. They now launched ‘Google Chrome,’ their own browser.

Google is known to treat its employees extremely well, keeping them happy. They offer all sorts of professional development classes on all levels; including business writing, content development, presentation skills, management and leadership etc. In fact, the engineers at Google are encouraged to spend one day per week on various projects of their interest. Google News, Orkut, AdSense and Gmail are all fruits of this amazing endeavor.

Wegmans Food Market

This supermarket chain has seventy-nine stores in the United States. They believe that good people can achieve anything they set out to, when they work in unison for a common goal. They understand that goals can be achieved only by keeping everyone happy ensuring their needs are fulfilled.

Wegmans has a labor resource manager they use to make sure their employees are not over-worked and that all employees can count on support from their colleagues whenever they need it. This labor resource manager is in place to make sure employees are given a chance to study further, take a few days off to pursue their interests or care for sick family members.

Cisco Systems

Cisco software and hardware are popular throughout the world. Cisco offers network solutions, providing ease of access from anywhere.

This company ensures employees balance their work and personal life. Flexi-time is allowed when needed. There is also a leadership development system in place for employees to develop different skills and capabilities. One of the best things is that every Cisco employee can get personal support, to discuss personal issues in total confidentiality. Their trained onsite emergency response teams help evaluate a personal crisis and find solutions. In these days, when you cannot count on even close family, this sort of personal interaction goes a long way in making the employees feel completely at home.

Genentech

Genentech is a biotechnology corporation that has the distinction of being called the founder of the biotech industry. They operate in the United States and Singapore.

This company fosters creativity in their researchers and encourages them to pursue projects of their personal interests, apart from working on company projects. Genentech also conducts a postdoctoral four-year program. The company believes that these benefits bring out the best in the employees and affects the company and their personal lives in the most positive manner.

Methodist Hospital System

This leading acute care hospital treats around 50,000 patients each year; both local and international. It is a teaching hospital in the United States, with several well-known specialists on the staff, catering to every field of medicine.

Employees are given paid time off biweekly. They are also provided subsidized transport and education assistance in the form of reimbursements for undergraduate, graduate and doctoral courses, as long as these courses are related to their jobs. Employees can also count of financial support for several things. The numerous resources that are made available for the employees to help them not only with their professional lives but also personal lives, makes this hospital a haven for the staff.

Goldman Sachs

This company is into investment banking, investment management and securities services. It operates in the United States and a few other countries. They encourage a high level of employee interaction and support.

Several employee benefits are offered, including tuition reimbursement, different courses, scholarships, fellowships, loan and mortgage discounts, education etc. Ongoing mentoring and training programs are a continuous process with this company.

Nugget Market, Inc

A supermarket chain in the Northern California region that is family owned; employees here are part of the family.

You would be surprised to know that this supermarket has never had a layoff. Was it started yesterday? No, it was founded as far back as in 1926. The employees earn top wages and the best benefits in the industry, including health care and long-term disability. This employee-friendly attitude works wonders.

One of the foremost attractions for employees, who would love to develop new skills which will help them grow, is training. All these companies who have provided this and more to their employees have a success record at retaining employees and profitability.

There can be no better advertising than word of mouth – your satisfied customers talking good about you. And companies like Microsoft are using this strategy very effectively by featuring their high-end customers talking about their products. When customers who have used a product and been satisfied with it favorably endorse it, this is called “testimonial advertising,” which is one of the most popular endorsement approaches. The endorsement can be in any form and the individual giving the testimonial may be the head of the company or someone holding an important position in the company.

This testimonial advertising has come about to bring in the most important factor of influencing a customer into trying a product, since it has been praised by a satisfied customer who is also someone important. This gives the prospective customer a reason to emulate and choose to become a customer too.

If you have seen all the sales pages online loaded with testimonials with people who are said to have used the products, you would understand why they do it. But only people who visit these sites can see these testimonials. It is the same with the bigger companies like Microsoft too, where their testimonials are usually buried deep down in their company websites.

But now things have changed and several IT companies are taking them to a mass audience. They are using customers in different mass communication channels and the testimonials of the CEOs, COOs or other important people.

One example of a company using testimonial advertising is Dell, which has been implementing this strategy for its products that are targeted at small and medium businesses. The management feels that public endorsements help improve interactivity with customers, grow the market as well as help build a brand. Microsoft on the other hand has campaigns running that are not aimed only at SMBs but follow the same strategy of engaging with their customers.

The COO of a well-known and reputed company that uses a particular brand of desktops endorses that they are “affordable and worry-free services” and says they power all their centers around the world. Another company that trains millions globally talks about their servers that manage their growing chain of learning centers. These are the kind of endorsements customers like to hear from successful companies.

This strategy works both ways, and is beneficial to the companies selling these products and the ones using them. When the heads of companies providing testimonials discuss the products they are using, their customers in turn tend to feel more confident in them. The companies that engage in continued dialogue with the customers are seeing excellent results and they now have the key to retention of customers.

There is another brand strategy that many of these companies find works the best – targeting the chief financial officers of companies. They are ensuring they fulfill their customers’ need of sharing their experience by providing a platform where they could speak of the benefits; such as low licensing fees, decrease in energy cost and the lower cost of buying the products.

A research shows that consumer’s attitudes are by and large susceptible to influences and they are willing to conform to others’ expectations when making purchases. The consumers’ need to identify with others and enhance one’s image by acquiring products or brands suggested by others in the field is taken advantage of in this form of advertising, which is all about impression management. One consumer says, “I generally purchase brands that I think others will approve of.”

While there are several creative tactics and techniques that keep coming up each day; testimonial advertising is a workhorse selling tool that never seems to go out of style. It is considered to be the third most popular advertising form currently. It works great even for internet marketers as long as they ensure the testimonials they provide are genuine. The current day consumer is smart and easily sees through fake testimonials from unknown people. This is the reason Microsoft and others get their testimonials from people in the high management cadres in companies.

Marc Zuckerberg – United States, Age: 23

Facebook has attracted more users than any other site can boast of. The founder is a young boy born on May 14, 1984 and named Mark Elliot Zuckerberg. This sky and reserved kid has an unparalleled brilliance. According to Forbes magazine, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in the world for 2008.

He was born in a Jewish family and his father is a dentist. From his early years, he loved hacking into computers and wrote his own programs. He studied at Harvard, and the idea that brought him fame and money, a social networking site, was born in his dorm at Harvard, and the rest is history. His idea took fruition as Facebook, gaining unprecedented fame. He and his friend Andrew McCollum along with two other roommates, Dustin Moskovits and Chris Hughes started Facebook. Mark is the CEO of Facebook and his net worth is said to be $1.5 billion.

Zuckerberg is the person responsible for the overall direction and product strategy for Facebook. He currently leads the design of Facebook’s service and development of its infrastructure and core technology.

He studied computer science at Harvard University and while he was there, he created a website called Facemash, that compared students’ dorm pictures kept side-by-side, to see which one is better looking (hot or not.) It was about a few months later that he launched Facebook. He also won the Crunchie Award in 2007 for the “Best Startup CEO.”

Xiaofeng Peng – China. Age: 34

Xiaofeng Peng is a self-made billionaire with an estimated worth of $1.5 billion. Solar energy has been his ladder to success and wealth. When Peng was pondering the next move of his career, he realized that renewable energy is the future. Initially, he started out with a trading company in 2005, and it grew immensely to become one of the fastest growing suppliers of Chinese-made solar wafers in the world. These solar wafers are used in solar panels. His company, LDK Solar has also been listed on NASDAQ since 2007.

He graduated from Jiangxi Foreign Trade School in 1993 and went on to earn a diploma in international business from Beijing University Guanghua School of Management as well as an MBA degree in 2002. Prior to founding this company, he also founded Suzhou Liouxin, which is a leading manufacturer of personal protective equipment in Asia.

Xiaofeng Peng is also fluent in Japanese and traveled America and Europe extensively. He is a man with a big vision and has built a company of more than 12,000 people, which continues to grow. As part of his next
phase of expansion plans, LDK Solar has recently given a $220 million contract to Applied Materials Inc., for providing precision wafering systems.

Peng states that he aims at making his company the largest and the most economic silicon wafer supplier in the world and he intends to do that both in terms of market share and sales volume.

John Arnold – United States. Age: 34

John Arnold was a go-getter from a young age. He is on the list of current self-made billionaires and his net work is estimated to be $2.5 bil.

His father was a lawyer and mom was an accountant. He graduated from Vanderbilt University and after his studies, went on to work for Enron.

He was 27 when he used Internet-based trading network to earn $750 million for Enron in 2001, when he was an oil trader for the company. He was rewarded $8 million in bonus. A year later, when Enron collapsed, he went into business himself and founded the hedge fund Centaurus Energy Advisors, LLC, based in Houston, Texas. For this, he is said to have used his $8 million bonus and other funds from selling his Enron stock just before its collapse.

Sameer Gehlaut, India. Age: 34

Sameer Gehlaut whose net worth is calculated at 1.2 bil, is the youngest and the 45th richest in India, and one of the youngest billionaires in the world. He established Indiabulls in 2000. His first step was the acquisition of Inorbit Securities, a stock brokerage company in Delhi. The group initially operated from a small office with a tin roof, near Hauz Khas bus terminal in Delhi. All they had was two computers. Fast forward ten years and the tin roof transformed in to a beautiful building on a 4000-acre land and the company has become one of the leading financial services and real estate companies in India.

His educated consisted of a Mechanical Engineering degree from IIT, Delhi in 1995. As a young boy, he worked for Halliburton in the United States. He returned to India and started an earth moving and mining business, which is now taken care of by his family.

He laid the foundation to his success when he started Indiabulls in 2000, when he was just 26 years old. He had help in the form of his two friends from IIT, Delhi; Rajiv Rattan Mittal and Saurabh Mittal, who are said to have a net worth of $500 million each. Indiabulls’ interests include consumer finance, mortgages, real estate, retail and power. The company’s market capitalization is a huge Rs. 25,000 crores.

Larry Page, United States. Age: 35

Page is a self-made billionaire and there cannot be anyone on the internet who hasn’t heard of him. He is the founder of the largest search engine, Google. He is ranked high on the list of billionaires with an estimated net worth of $18.6 billion.

His background constituted of a computer engineering degree and a masters degree from Stanford University. Before completing this degree, he launched Google in 1998, along with his Russian born classmate, Sergey Brin, whose worth is said to be $18.5 billion. There is a small story that makes the rounds, saying that the two friends initially disliked each other until they eventually got closer due to their mutual interests. They even co-authored “The Anatomy of a Large Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” which is like a bestseller in the web world.

Google proved to be an extremely successful venture that has seen an increase in revenue exponentially. At Google, Page holds the title of the President for Products. Since Google went public in 2004, there was a huge increase in business. He is said to make a lot of money from the well-known online advertising program, Google AdSense and Adwords. Apart from Google, he also invested in Tesla Motors, which is in the process of developing a battery operated vehicle.

The much-appreciated fact is that Page manages a $1 billion philanthropic organization and is known to spread his wealth whenever possible.

Fortunes are made from being passionate about dreams. These self-made billionaires suggest that hard work, talent, the right attitude along with plenty of luck seem to be the vital ingredients to their huge success.

Google

As expected, Google tops the list. Google is the most powerful brand in the world with a current brand value estimated at $86 billion, and it has achieved all this in just ten short years. This global search engine giant had its beginnings in 1996 and was just a research project started by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford University Ph.D. students. The incorporation of Google Inc. took place on September 7, 1998 at their friend’s garage in California. The company experienced stupendous growth in a short time and went public on Aug 19, 2004. Google’s rank is based on the equity value and the fantastic financial performance.

General Electronics (GE)

GE is a giant US multinational engaged in technology and services industries. It has its headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. It is now the second largest company in the world, in terms of market capitalization. The brand value of this company is estimated at $71.4 billion.

Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft is the world’s largest software company and the third most powerful brand on the globe, with annual revenue of $44.28 billion and a brand value of $70.89 billion. This veteran software company was started by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 and has its headquarters in Washington. The company went public in 1986. It manufactures computer technology for business and personal computing, offering a wide range of software products.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola makes carbonated soft drinks and has a brand value of $58.2 billion. It was started in 1885 as a patent medicine by Dr. John Stith Pemberton in Covington, Georgia. It was named Pemberton’s French Wine Coca back then.

China Mobile

This is the world’s largest mobile phone operator with the maximum number of subscribers (about 296 million). Vodafone owns 3.3 percent of the China Mobile. This company has a 65% share of the most competitive Chinese mobile market and commands a brand value of $57.2 billion.

IBM

IBM once had the distinction of being the largest computer company in the world but Hewlett-Packard took that spot in 2006. However, IBM is currently the largest information technology employer in the entire world. Its brand value is reported to have shown a 65% increase to $55.3 billion and this moved the company up to sixth place.

Apple

Apple Computer Company was formed in the year 1977 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniac and Ronald Wayne. It was initially called Apple Computer Inc. but then the world “computer” was dropped from its name in keeping with the expansion from a computer maker to consumer electronics and software. The well-known Apple creations and designs are Mac laptop and desktop computers, iPod and iTunes, the OS X operating system and the very popular iPhone. The company has seen a 123% rise in its brand value because of these innovative products. Fortune magazine called Apple the most admired company in the United States and it has a brand value of $55 billion.

McDonalds

The fast food giant McDonald’s brand value grew more than 49% and is currently estimated to be at $49.49 billion. This restaurant chain is one of the most recognizable on earth being the most popular food outlet in the world. It had the most basic beginnings when Dick and Mac McDonald created the brand. But the story goes that much of the success is owed to a salesman of a milk-shake maker, Ray Croc, who made a trip to California to check out McDonald’s hamburger stand, only to enter into a well-known business relationship with the McDonald brothers.

Nokia

Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational company with its headquarters in Keilaniemi, Espoo. This communications company is focused on wired and wireless telecommunications. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile telephones and employs thousands of people worldwide. It has achieved its goal of connecting the world and has a brand value of $43.9 billion.

Marlboro

Marlboro had its share of problems initially and reaped rewards after the introduction of a new cowboy image for the brand. With this change, sales shot up by 5000 percent with an estimated brand value of $39.2 billion, which is an increase in value by 2 percent from last year.

It is interesting to note that all these powerful brands had humble beginnings but soon reached the top with their imaginative and innovative approaches to business, customer satisfaction and to achieving their goals.