The end of the Ponds comes by Christmas, and then a new companion.

As business owner, learn to sit back, relax and realize that even if you wanted to fix the engine yourself, you either don’t have the time or the skills. The only way for you to do so, is support the team that you hired to look after the engine in the first place.

There’s some excellent business development and management advice here. Worth the read.

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Of course, the Internet has it’s ugly side as well. Pornography abounds on the Internet. SPAM evolves every day. Petty people clog Facebook pages with childish rants. And people illegally download movies and music.

It’s the latter that has led to what now sits before Congress — the Stop Online Piracy Act, also known as SOPA.

Stopping online piracy sounds like a great idea, and it is. And SOPA has true bipartisan support, which is generally a good thing. Sadly, there is little good about SOPA.

SOPA is a bill designed and virtually written by large media companies who want to control the Internet. If SOPA passes, then popular sites like YouTube, flickr and even Facebook could be shut down. Media conglomerates like Comcast, Time Warner and other Internet providers will be allowed to decide which websites you can view and which ones you can’t.

In short, if SOPA passes, the Internet will become a closed and costly platform that serves the needs of large media companies instead of the billions of individuals who use it every day.

Online piracy is serious. It costs jobs and money to hard-working people — not just media executives, movie stars and singers. But if the media companies want to stop online piracy, SOPA is not the answer.

Instead of trying to force users into a costly, outdated business model, they should change their approach to offering streaming and online content. They should look at the lavish expenses they have cultivated. They should look at what consumers want and find a profitable model to meet that demand.

It can be done. Successful industries adapt everyday to a new way of doing business as technology changes their industry. Retail is a prime example. Brick and mortar stores are undergoing a huge transition, but they continue to survive and expand because of the way they have adapted with the Internet.

Thousands of individuals produce quality media offerings every day and sell it on the Internet, whether it is self-publishing books, producing podcasts, composing music or producing films.

And in case you think this is impossible for “big stars” to do, just take a look at what Louis CK just did. I’m not a Louis CK fan, in that I’ve never really listened to his comedy. But I greatly admire how he produced his last show and distributed himself through his own website without the backing of Hollywood studios and media giants. In just 11 days, he earned more than $1 million.

If you value a free Internet and the opportunities it offers everyone, then I urge and beg you to contact your Congressman and ask that they oppose SOPA.

You can find out which congressmen support SOPA and which ones oppose it by visiting http://www.sopaopera.org/. It’s a great resource.

But don’t stop there. Share this post on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and your other personal and social media sites. Tell friends and family to do the same. This is far too important to ignore.

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When it comes to mapping the world’s changing plutocracy, the Rolls-Royce Index is among the more useful tools.

Simply put, it measures which country is buying the most Rolls-Royces. The index not only gives us a sense of the country’s with the most excess wealth to burn (a base model Rolls will set you back at least $245,000), but also the citizens who are most anxious to display it. For ages, America has topped the list.

But in 2011, China beat out the U.S. to top the index for the first time.

(Via Daring Fireball)

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I miss doing a “Best of” page in the paper — which I did for years. This is the next best thing.

We miss reading them as well.

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“In other words, when you think about your life or your food or your clothes — or your spouse or your job or your mission — don’t get about them. Instead, make God the King in that affair and that moment. That is, hand over the situation to His kingly power, and do His righteous will with the confidence that he will work for you and meet all your needs…”

I love this part: Do His righteous will with confidence. The “with confidence” is what’s so often missing. 

Too often we do “His righteous will” out of expectation or obligation. In times of need, we do it out of desperation and great desire. But how often, especially in those latter times, do we do it with the confidence that he will work for us and meet all our needs?

With confidence. While I have faith in the Lord and His abilities, I can honestly say that sometimes I lack the confidence that He will do what I ask. But that’s not the point.

With confidence that he will work for you and meet all your needs. It’s that part that I forget, and it’s that part that I will strive to remember and by which to abide.

Over-thinking is what breeds unfounded doubt. There’s a reason “go with your gut” is such a timeless refrain among those most accomplished — more often than not, we know what we need/want to do, but we waffle because of some combination of uncertainty and fear and, just maybe, procrastination. I’m not judging anybody on this one—believe me—as I struggle with this one more than all the rest combined. What I’ve learned, though, is that I learn by doing, and often failing, not by stroking my chin.

I’m guilty of a lot of things on the list that Brett presents, but over-thinking a project has to be my worst offense. It’s not from fear so much as the desire to get it perfect. But all the thinking in the world will produce nothing. Only execution delivers results, and once you’ve built something you can set about improving it and moving toward that all elusive goal of perfection.

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I think of boredom as a clock. Every second that someone on my team is bored, a second passes on this clock. After some aggregated amount of seconds that varies for every person, they look at the time, throw up their arms, and quit.

I’ve quit jobs before because of boredome. I should have left others for the same reason.

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Given my background in journalism, this is something that concerns me greatly. I’ve argued many times that print media has completely mishandled the Internet, and now they are mishandling new opportunities like the iPad (and tablets in general), which is clearly the future of media consumption.

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