I have been in business for many a year now, nearly a decade at last count and like all entrepreneurs and business owners, I have had many successes and many failures, many headaches, heartaches, and the general joy and crippling despair of being in business, such is the nature of our game of choice.

Being a serial entrepreneur and current owner of multiple SME businesses, here are the three most important peals of wisdom I have learnt to play the game better than my competitors.

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1. Build And Test More Prototypes…Lots More

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The market is a unforgiving mistress and many a small business owners best laid plans have been smashed to kindling on first contact against the rocky shores of the “target customer”. This is fine if the “boat” in question is but a small rower, sent out to test the waters, quickly created and cheaply replaced. It is an altogether different story when the “boat” in question is a large and expensive galley, crafted over many months or years far from the real life dangers of the reef.

I have both fallen pray to building idea “boats” far too large before testing them in the waters and have seen far more of my clients make the same mistakes over and over again. The SME’s that succeed in this day and age are those that test quickly and test often, gathering real market feedback and adapting their designs to create a better boat, one that will navigate the waters far better than the competitions.

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2. Constantly Streamline Your Processes…As A Priority

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When you neglect your business, it gets fat. And not in the good, expanding profits sort of way. Cash flow may be the blood flow of your company though it is the systems that are the skeleton holding everything together.

In the early stages of a business there is seldom time to think about a diet plan over the long term. An extra document there, a new protocol there; in the short term you see very little affect on the business waistline and the belt still buckles on the second hole. Time, however, can be a cruel thing, especially to a business not focussed on cutting the fat, constantly streamlining the systems and working methods. If not kept in check the lean, mean, fighting machine you started with can very quickly become the fat, slow and incredibly lethargic sumo wrestle struggling to breath.

Protect your business by putting it on a diet of constant streamlining and be disciplined in keeping it there.

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3. Get Rid Of The Deadweight…Quickly And Unceremoniously

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Homemade blackberry pies are delicious, though it only takes a few bad berries to effect the whole glorious creation. In business, it only takes a few bad policies, people or customers to do the same to the whole organization.

Be vigilant in hunting out these bad apples and ensuring they don’t have the opportunity to get into the mix and sour the whole dish, or your business as a whole will suffer the consequences.

Customers are easy to ditch, policies more problematic and staff the most pain. Each have their own unique challenges. Remember though, you are baking the perfect blackberry pie and so cannot afford to have even one sour fruit in the mix or you risk losing out to your customers delicious apple turnover. Ok, i’ll stop with the fruit analogies.

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This article was written by Jonny Gibaud, serial entrepreneur and SME consultant specialising in helping small businesses grow and expand their offerings in the internet age. To find out more about him visit his website at www.jonnygibaud.com.

The Three Things ALL SME’s NEED To Be Doing To Outcompete Everybody is a post from: thelifething.com
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Hi guys,

Yes, it is I. I had not died as some of you appeared to presumed. I honestly have no idea how many people still read my blog or have me in their RSS feeds as I stopped publishing over 18 months ago. However, according to analytics I still get good daily traffic and so let me introduce you to something I have been working on over the last 18 months.

How To Do What I Do – The Best Possible Step By Step Instruction I Could Create

On this blog the most common question I get is “How Do I Do It?” – Honestly the answer is not as simple as “Like this” However I have spent the last 18 months creating a course while I was living in America trying to explain the process as best I could. It has been taught as a internship, a consultancy program and now finally it is an online course – which is great for you because it brings the cost down to less than 10% of what other people paid.

For those that don’t know I currently have an online company I created a few years ago that is projected to turnover $1.5million this year, it takes up 2 hours of my time a day which means I can explore life, travel and do whatever I please. The way I did it was to change my personal brand, a process I started 4 years ago when I was a project manager working in the UK. The Gobrand.me course is the EXACT course and tools I used to change my own situation and I have seen it successfully help many, many, many people since its original conception.

It is now in version 5 and finally available online. In my humble opinion it is the best course you can invest in this 2012 to transform your life, career and situation. I know because I did it.

If your are committed to changing your situation and making lifelong changes and want more out of life, I challenge you to give this course ago. I will give you your money back if it doesn’t have massive impact to change you life so you have nothing to lose – You only have opportunity to miss.

Don’t miss out and until next time I blog, have a great life.

Visit GObrand.me – It might just be the best decision you make this year.

This Course Might Just Change Your Life is a post from: thelifething.com
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I lost track of time

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Lets be honest, it has been a while since I wrote a blog post hasn’t it? – longer than the awkward silence following a spectacular joke fail but not quite long enough to forget that I am British and attempt comedy at least three times in ever sentence, so get ready I have a lot of pent up bad jokeishness to release on you.

If we were to measure the time I have been neglecting this blog in beard length, it might look a little something like this – I think you will agree, the visual helps. Ahh Jolie, theres a reason we are no longer together. NB – If you own the rights to this picture then please don’t sur me – theres a good man, or woman.

The UK is no more….

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For me anyway, don’t worry, it hasn’t been destroyed or anything. As a quick update, I am now living in the US, (mainly because the English accent works so well over here) and have slightly reduced the jet-setting lifestyle – for how long, we shall see – probably until my mistermeaners around the world catch up with me.

The Reason For This Post

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A couple of posts piqued my interest recently, mainly “A Day In The Life Of…” posts by Neil Patel and Henri Junttilla, both of whom are well worth following if you do not already.

I find it fascinating to delve briefly into the lives and habits of different people during an average day to see how they tick, and it also satisfies my dark voyeuristic nature. I’m kidding of course, I don’t find it fascinating.

And so like all creative individuals of raw, unbridled talent before me, I have straight up gone and stolen other peoples ideas and will now shamelessly claim them as my own. Here is my third “A Day In The Life Of…” posts to followup the previous “A Day In The Life Of A Traveling Entrepreneur“ and “3 Months In The Life Of A Travelling Entrepreneur”, both of which were surprisingly popular you dark, voyeuristic readers you.

Granted, this might get me into trouble as some of the people I mention will no doubt read this as it gets posted on my Facebook wall. If you are one of these people, so sue me, and if you happen to be Mark Zuckerburg (founder of Facebook for anyone living under a rock) and are reading this (unlikely) then “damn you, you geeky self made genius, Facebook is killing me”

24 Hours In My Life ( Zero Convictions)

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Here’s how my typical day looks at the moment. I pretty high on Red Bull right now so I may just throw in some outlandish lies into the mix, see if you can spot them.

I'm living here

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I'm Driving This

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10am: Wake up. Personally I believe it should be law that no one need rise before this time, anything beforehand is just unGodly.

10am-10.30: Protein Shake and breakfast while scanning “7 Life System“, check bank accounts, do Facebook (I only check this once a day – cue jaw drop but people, I choose life), check company profits for the last 24 hours, and watch a TED.com episode. I tried running early in the morning for a while, this lasted exactly one run and six near lorry collisions later to decided that any physical exercise before 12 is just suicidal.

10.30 – 12:00: Answer all emails, 15 minute Skype catchup with business partner, official business work and other such necessities. This is the only time I check email in a 24 hour period people, nothing is too important to wait 24 hours. The trick is to always either answer the mail or deleted it – never flag, it will not get done.

12.00 – 2.00: Food and workout. I found a great American store called Super Target which seems solely founded to ensure that I never have to cook again in my life. Bless you Super Target founder. Usual a salad and a ton of chicken or the odd DoDo, though just recently the slow carb meal thing aka Tim Ferris “4 Hour Workweek.” After lunch I usually head over the road to my cousins place to work out with what seems like the rest of the population in Kansas city but I am reliably informed is actually just the girls we hang out with on a regular basis and presumably like.

2.00 – 6.00: Business Development. This varies but I am usual out the house and either working on real estate deals, in meetings for new businesses or belting out  ”Free Falling” (original version, none of that John Mayer crap) with the windows down in the Cadillac – (I am loved by the neighbourhood for this, I can tell). Currently launching a gym franchise and a magazine as well as a new property management business model so things are a little full – thankfully all my other partners are smarter than I am so things are going well.

This is cool, we are building a warehouse for EFS.

EFS Warehouse

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6.00 – 8.00: Food, try to get a run in, usually distracted by movies. Food in America is awesome.

Bloc Burger

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The place I forget, but it's awesome

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8.00 – 12.00: Social. Varies significantly but usual involves me getting my ass kicked at basketball, getting my ass kicked in poker, getting my ass kicked for talking at the cinema, scrapping my ass off roading, getting my ass kicked for hitting on the waitress at dinner, getting my ass kicked for splashing in the pool, simply getting my ass kicked for trying to be funny or sometimes just getting my ass kicked and no one tells me the reason. Fortunately the fact that I am currently dating Anne Hathaway helps.

Off Roading

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Kansas City Group

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Kansas Night Life

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12.00-2.00: Focussed business. I am a bit of a night owl and unfortunately real business has to take place. Heres my week structure.

Mondays – Brand and Marketing for current companies – Analytics, advertising, development, split testing, market analysis, comeption analysis and other wonderfully geeky things.

Tuesdays – Staff Stuff – All the guys that are part of my teams update me on Tuesdays so I go through all that and make sure everyone is moving forward and no one has died, that kind of thing.

Wednesdays - System improvements on websites, business practices and all other manner of things that will make my life easier in the future. I also factor in some time to learn new jokes, the Americans love it.

Thursdays and Fridays – New ventures. Whatever ideas I am playing with this is the time I focus on testing or developing them.

Saturdays – Hell no. Ok, thats a lie, sometime as I am writing this on a Sat evening – sad isn’t it.

Sundays – Hell no. Sunday is my day off. Though I should stop saying hell, a seven year old kid told me so then other day – I am shamed.

1:50 – 2:00: I set the mission critical tasks for the next week and do a quick bit of very manly journaling (It’s manly you doubters, I use words like “Hence”, “Ego” and “Visa vie”)

2:00-10:00: Sleep. I have tried all the different sleep patterns including polyphasic and for me, without 8 hours core I am just not a happy bunny – don’t judge me, I love my bed, it is comfy and made of real puppies.

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Some oddities

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Just so I can one up everyone else writing a “Day in…” post I thought I would include some little quirks of mine that help me be productive.

1. I only check and answer email once a day and never receive it on my Iphone. Again, I choose life and not becoming some crazed message answering service. Sometimes you do have to answer the inevitable “Why the hell (there’s the hell again) don’t you answer your phone?” questions. Here you have two options, 1. kindly explain the reason with humility and compassion or 2. Get new friends. I generally rarely use the former.

2. I tend to rarely answer my phone or texts as soon as they come in. Almost always I wait until I have finished what I was doing before replying or calling the person back. It is never life or death.

3. I 80/20 everything.

4. I time box everything.

5. I tend to wear a cape about 78% of the time. It just completes the outfit.

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See you in 4,576 hours – possibly

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And there you have it, you may hear again from me sometime soon or maybe not for another 6-8 months. Either way, after three days please just presume I have either been arrested for a super sexy crime, died or run away to join the circus – and not necessarily in that order.

A Day In The Life Of A [Slightly More Grounded] Travelling Entrepreneur is a post from: thelifething.com
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Sales Have Been Great, Now To Give Back

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Get 6 ebooks for $12.95 and transform the way you work, think, travel and make money.

Hello all,

Sales of my ebooks over the life of this blog have been very good indeed, and keep me in the market for buying even more nice little things that I probably don’t need.

However, that is not the main reason I write my books. I write my ebooks because I want to help share the knowledge I have picked  up over the years and used to help me find success to help others be more successful.

I believe that whatever you want you must first give. I want wisdom and success so I first have to make others wiser and more successful. My ebooks are the best way for me to package my wisdom and the most effective way to get it out to people.

Therefore I have decided, for a limited time only, to offer all of my ebooks for the princely sum of $12.99, which is the normal cost of just one. My way of saying thanks to all my readers and giving back.

The 5 books on offer are below and if you are serious about becoming richer, more effective and ultimately more successful and are up for a good giggle then don’t miss out.  The 6 books in the package are:

Get 6 ebooks for $12.95 and transform the way you work, think, travel and make money.

Buy 1 Get 5 Free: All my Ebooks for $12.99 is a post from: thelifething.com
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Hello all,

The other day I had Eureka moment involving Bamboo and what makes it successful. I initially was only going to write the report for myself but then got carried away with graphics and created an ebook.

You can download it for $0.99 – so well worth checking out.

Also, here are some freebee desktop wallpapers based on the book. They look cool but you will need to purchase the book to understand what they mean. Click to enlarge.

You can also check out all my other books on the right hand side of this website. Look this way ———–>

Bamboo (A Philosophy for Success) – Out Now $0.99 is a post from: thelifething.com
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Word count: 1400

Hi Jonny,

I stumbled upon your blog and have to say that I love it! I would love if it if you could share some insight/direction with me . . . I have this sense of being trapped in the rat race and want so much more to life. So far, the closest I’ve gotten is taking the coveted one week vacation per year to see some of the most beautiful places on earth! I want more like one week of work a year and beautiful places the rest of the year! I know that it is possible for me and that there is a way out, but I don’t know where to find the “door” as I have a dream but no plan. I am a therapist (I work with emotionally disturbed teens at a highly stressful and demanding job) and have no idea how I can leave the rat race and still support myself and cover things like medical insurance living abroad. I am not an entrepreneur (that I am aware of thus far lol!) so I’m kind of at a loss. I so admire everything that you are doing but don’t have the business experience you have. I know that you are very busy and living the dream but if you have a moment to share some of your blessings and direction I would be so appreciative. Congratulations on everything you’ve done thus far and to the adventures that await you!

Laurie

So this is an email I got from one of my readers a few months ago and I have finally got round to writing a proper response. I am sure that Laurie’s questions are very much the same as many people reading this blog and wanting more out of life. Therefore I have tried to address the question raised by giving three pieces of advice that I have learn’t over the last few years of living the life that I do.

Obviously this is not a step by step solution to living the dream life as I don’t believe there really is a “dream life” or a step by step way of getting there. To me, there is simply “life” and making the most of it. However, if you are feeling stuck, these three keynotes should help.

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1. You Have To Risk It

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As Laurie puts it, she has a sense of being trapped in the rat race trap and I think we can all relate to that one, I know I certainly can. I spent a few years after the failure of my first business working as a Project Manager in the oil and gas industry, getting paid decently but feeling more and more stuck with every passing day. The thing is, the only way I had to get out of that life and into the one that I live now was to risk giving up the good to go for the great. I was well paid, traveled Europe and was responsible for almost £8 million in business before I was 23. This was an incredible job and if I wanted to rise in the corporate world I was a fool to give it up.

Thats just the thing though, I had a good life but I wanted a great life. I was willing to take the risk to get the great life. It may not have worked out, I might have failed considerably, I could be in a very different situation right now…but thats ok, I know the risk I was taking and I was ready to take on the consequences, whatever happened…good or bad.

I still would have liked to have done better than I have by now, who doesn’t, that is simply human nature, though I am glad I took the risk and wouldn’t change it for the world.

The number one reason that people don’t managed to escape the rat race and live life on their own terms is that they are not willing to take the risk, and even more than that, the are not willing to fail, dust themselves off and start again.

My first company failed after 18 months of hard slog. I made no money, in fact, it cost me money and it took me almost two years to get over it. But I did get over it, learnt from my mistakes and took that experience into building more businesses, better and stronger businesses which now provide the income I need to live the life I do.

There is always going to be a risk and you are going to fail and be disappointed…a lot. If you can handle that risk, failure and disappointment than the world is yours. I promise you.

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2. It’s Not About Removing work, It Is About Blending it

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Laurie mentions that she is looking for one week of work a year and the rest of the time in beautiful places. I have to say to you Laurie, that this is the worst thing you could possibly do. Life is not about removing work, everyone needs work to live a full life. Having meaningful work in your life is part of what brings the most happiness, without it you have no purpose and sunbathing gets very boring, very quickly.

Getting the life you want is not about removing work and working less hours, it is about blending your work with your life and doing something you are passionate about and love, then it does not seem life work.

I work exceptionally hard; on my businesses, on new projects, with helping people out. The difference is that I am free to define my own hours, I can choose not to work if I want to do something else and I enjoy my work so much I look forward to doing it.

Everyone needs to work to live a full and happy life, it is just that the difference between working for a paycheck and working to create value for others and making cash through that, doing something you love is so vastly a better way to live.

I would suggest you don’t look to remove work from your life but simply focus on ways of creating value in other peoples lives doing the things you enjoy. If you can create value for others, you will also create wealth and freedom for yourself.

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3. Experience is only 10% of the battle

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I appreciated Laurie’s comment about my business experience, though in all honesty I am not that experienced at all. I may have more businesses and entrepreneurial and lifestyle design experience that most but I am still playing in the little league at the moment.

What I do have though, is an incredibly ability to fail. I have probably failed more than anyone I know, more often and much greater.

Experience is great and it can help but more than experience you need guts, determination, a willingness to fail, to face the challenges head on and battle through them. That is the only way you are going to find happiness and the life you want; by sweat, effort and in all honestly quite a hefty handful of luck.

If I were given the choice to be lucky or talented I would take lucky every time. There is a chance that you will never succeed, there is a chance that I will never find more success than I have now, there is a chance we all might plateau and never rise again, but there is also a chance that we will make it and I for one jump at the opportunity.

Sometimes life can be a bitch and luck does play a large part in success. However, the harder you work the luckier you become as you will never have the chance at the opportunities if you don’t put yourself in a position to succeed.

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To Sum Up

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I hope this has been somewhat helpful. I know it is not step by step advice, “A do this, do that guide” to success. I don’t do this because i don’t believe in it. Everyones journey is unique and how I have found success will more than likely not work for you, everyone has to find their own path.

At the end of the day just remember, it is about the journey not the end result. Enjoy the journey, enjoy the success and enjoy the failures and you can’t go too far wrong.

Peace all.

If you have any more questions for me then just simply email me at jonny@thelifething.com. I am going to make most of my future posts simple answering peoples questions as I think that this is the best way to add value to your guys. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to get answers.

Also, if you want more personal help and advise then I work one on one with people to help them develop the life they want. Get in contact to find to more.

How To Create The Life You Crave, From A Guy Who Has Done It is a post from: thelifething.com
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Hello all you sexy readers, all 4000 or so of you.

Yes, I am afraid it is true. Thelifething is coming to an end – (the blog, not the adventure.)

Some of you may have noticed I have not been giving this blog the love and tender care I once did, and this is true. I am moving in a new direction – Personal Branding – and so am bringing thelifething.com to a close. However, stay subscribed as I will be periodically updating it with an article or two whenever I get the time, (though it will not be regular or structured.)

The good news is that if you have enjoyed my writing over the almost two years I have been publishing at thelifething then you can continue to get your fix by heading over to jonnygibaud.com/blog and subscribing there.

Here I will be writing on Personal Branding, Online Presence and Brand Management and so if this is something you are interested in then it would be great to see you over there.

Subscribe to Jonny’s new RSS feed

Subscribe by email to Jonny’s News Feed.

Follow Jonny’s new home on Twitter.

Long time readers, (thank you), you may also notice the change in blog design. This has been done so that the life thing can become an easily browsable web resource for everything it stands for – getting more out of life through lifestyle design, business, productivity, money and entrepreneurship.

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Some Sexy Stats from the last 2 years

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Thelifething has been an incredible project over the last two years and has been the catalyst for so much change both in my life and the life of it’s loyal readers. Here are some figures:

The Life Thing:

Reached a readership of over 4000 Loyal Monthly Readers

• Received 1909 comments
• Reached over 50,000 people
• Had readers in 151 countries
• Contains 137 articles
• Published 5 Ebooks
• Helped me to live and travel in over 7 countries including Thailand, India, Egypt, Ireland, and America.

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Thanks for Reading…

Thelifething Is Finishing! – How To Follow Jonny In The Future is a post from: thelifething.com
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The World Of Pictomins Awaits You…

If you have never heard of Pictomins before, then Download the free Promo Book.

For those of you who have and want to get your hands on the fully finished, fully polished book then you can buy it today for the usual limited time offer on this site – until I decide to change the price.

– $9.95

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“A different type of ebook; not just awesome information but also a scientifically proven means for remembering it!” - Raam Dev

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Jonny’s new eBook, Pictomins, is great fun! It’s fast and easy to get into, and designed to the normal high-quality standard of all of Jonny’s publications. I thoroughly recommend Pictomins for everyone wanting to have their mind massaged and their knowledge kneaded! - Chris Ducker

Jonny’s writing and ideas are guaranteed to give you a lift and kick start you into action when motivation and energy is flagging. For a quick pick up, pick up Pictomins. – Annabel Candy (Successful Blogging)

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– $9.95

Uses

Pictomins are little snippets of wisdom to help you get more out of life.

They are great for:

• For recalling and applying little bits of wisdom
• For use in presentations to explain concepts and keep your audience engaged
• To use to help you in school, collage or university for recalling important bits of information
• During networking sessions to help you remember people and details about them
• To summarize books and chapters for recall and application later on.

– $9.95

Pictomin Sneak Preview

Click image to enlarge.

I good Pictomin to bring to mind on your next purchase. Is that purchase going to make you a Happy Fish, A Stressful Fish or a Dead Fish?

– $9.95

Make Money

As with all my book here on the site I have a 51% commission partnership with those that promote my books. If you loved Pictomins and want to promote it then sign up below.

Join our Affiliate Program!

Here are some great banners and ad spot imagery to use on your website. Click image to download a larger version.

Free Wallpaper

Get some yellow into your life and download the free Pictomins wallpaper. Yellow is a highly stimulating creative and intellectual energy so stick it up for a few days and get your juices going. Click on the thumbnail to download the larger file.

– $9.95

Pictomins – Out Now is a post from: thelifething.com
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Read Time: A few seconds.

No explanations. Download your copy for free.

Read my latest post on Killer Personal Branding.

“Top Gun” Shows Us The Importance of Killer Personal Branding

The Greatest Self Help Book Of All Time is a post from: thelifething.com
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Read Time: 5-6 Mins

Overview: This post is a quick review of the last year at thelifething and a look at the year ahead. In it I will go through some of the goals I set myself, how I achieved them and also highlight the ones I failed miserably at. In addition I’ll highlight my 7Life 7 goals for this coming year so I can be accountable to you guys and hopefully some of you will be up for including your own 7 goals for this year in the comments so you too can be accountable to  others.

Major Announcement

I will be slowing down my writing here but ramping it up and focusing solely on the topic of Creating Killer Personal Brands. If you are interested in creating a Killer Personal Brand and enjoy my writing, you should check it out.

Happy New Year

Hello happy campers. Another year, another month or so to work off those damn extra mince pies. I say “extra” but in truth it was more like an entire box at a time.

Here’s a quick narcissistic look at the year I had in 2010 as everyone seems to be doing it, and a look to the future.

The Seven 7Life goals I had for 2010

1. • Make £1500 Non-Job Related Monthly Income (I class my companies as a job so this is passive income) - FAILED
2. • Spend 6 Months Abroad – FAILED
3. • Start Another Company – SUCCESS
4. • Complete 3 Running Races Including 1 Marathon – FAILED
5. • Reach 2000 blog subscribers – FAILED
6. • Publish A Commercial Ebook – SUCCESS
7. • Read 52 Books – SUCCESS

So it looks like I failed half my goals, which is not a great effort for someone who pitches the value of a 7Life system now is it. A little more detail for those that care.

1. Make £1500 Non-Job Related Monthly Income – I only make “Truly” passive income though my ebooks and a design I have patented and license out. I do not count consultancy and until I am spending less than 4 hours a week on my businesses I do not class that income as “Passive”. As you can see from the fact that some of you may not even be aware I have books for sale on this site, I have not been great at advertising my work this year. Sales of the Ovo are ok but not to the point of £1500 a month. Big fat fail on that one.

2. Spend 6 Months Abroad – I hit just over 4 months. 3 traveling in India and some stints in the States and Ireland. I could have made this goal but decided to focus on building my new company instead.

3. Start Another Company – This was a massive success and there will be more information to follow. You will all want to check this new company out.

4. Complete 3 Running Races Including 1 Marathon - 2 out of three. I ran a beach race in Ireland and did the Three Peaks Challenge which is running the three highest Peaks in the UK within 24 hours. Just didn’t get round to the marathon, no excuses on that one.

5. Reach 2000 Subscribers – Nope, not even close, I had a tiny 750 on last check and a few more hundred on email. Poor show, very poor.

6. Publish A Commercial Ebook - Oh yeah. Check it out here and get ready to take the first step in stopping throwing your money away and learning to think like the rich. My next book, Pictomins, is coming out sometime this month.

7. Read 52 Books – I’m not going to list all the books but the image above is a good one to get an idea of them. Incredible experience and something I am going to try and continue as a habit into the future.

And here is an except from my “Year in Review” of the main things I did achieve:

• • Spent 3 months traveling in India
• • Built EFS to a position where it is currently turning over a good 5 Figure number a month.
• • Created GObrandme Concept and setup officially as a Personal Branding Consultant
• • Reached over 700 subscribers to thelifething.com
• • Wrote 5 Ebooks
• • Successfully Sold 2 Commercial Ebooks
• • Read 52 Books

And now to 2011.

7Life goals for 2011

So I was a little lax in successfully completing my goals for last year, I know this because a buddy and I set forfeits to do when we miss goals and I did a fair few forfeits this year. Here are my main 7 for 2011.

• • Become an Established Authority On Personal Branding In The UK – (The Dan Schwarbel  of the UK)
• • Write a Novel
• • Achieve and maintain a 10% Body Fat
• • Spend Three Months Abroad
• • Live By The Rule Of Once
• • Complete 1 Marathon, 1 Iron Man, ad 1 Triathlon
• • Create and Patent Hangflex

1. Become an Established Authority On Personal Branding In The UK – I have unofficially been doing this for the last half decade but now want to make it my main focus. I have checked the market and the competition, know I can beat them all, and so this is a realistic possibility.

2. Write A Novel – Last year I drafted about 30,000 words each for two novel ideas but never got round to actually completing one. This year I will and who knows, by Christmas you might be able to buy a copy – if it’s any good.

3. Achieve and maintain a 10% Body Fat – I’m a pretty fit buy with a horrendous sugar habit. When I am in training I usually have an 11% body fat but am currently at 12% and have never maintained a 10% index for more than a week or so (I like sugar too much). To reach and maintain a 10% index over the year will take a drastic change of diet more than anything else, as the difference between 11% and 10% is exponential.

4. Spend Three Months Abroad - Part of my new lifestyle design is to focus on business if I am going to reach Decamillionaire status in the next decade. That being said, I want to make sure I create a habit of spending 3 months abroad a year for as long as it is viable.

5. Live By The Rule Of Once – This might take some explanation. I was notorious for watching films multiple times last year and so this year I wanted to stop that habit and only watch films I haven’t seen before, no repeats. This then got out of hand and I extended it to practically everything – food, experience, travel. My only rule was that I would not violate social norms so if I was with mates and something came up that was a repeat it doesn’t count – I don’t want to be a d*ck about these things after all.

6. Complete 1 Marathon, 1 Iron Man, ad 1 Triathlon – This one is going to be a big one. Period.

7. Create and Patent Hangflex – A new product idea I have had in blueprint for a few years. This is the year to make it happen or burn the designs.

So there you have it, my goals from last years and ones aiming for the future. If you are brave enough, put your own goals into the comments.

Oh, and whats the biggest thing I learnt from 52 books this year?

I know very little about anything.

Peace.

What Reading A Book A Week For an Entire Year Taught Me (Year Review And The Year Ahead) is a post from: thelifething.com
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