Inspirational Quotes from Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a great physicist but he was also very astute about how to live life and follow one's goals while helping others.

Here are some inspirational quotes from a true genius:

If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

It is better to believe than to disbelieve; in so doing you bring everything to the realm of possibility.

A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.

Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.

It would be better if you begin to teach others only after you yourself have learned something.

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

There are many lessons we can learn from the life and work of Albert Einstein.  He was a true genius and a humble man in many ways.

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Memorizing the Top 10 Most Valuable Brands

A previous article described how easy it is to memorize a top 10 list using the example of the top 10 companies in the world based on market value.  The article can be seen at How to Memorize a Top 10 List.

This article will show how to memorize the top 10 most valuable brands.

As a refresher, here are the memory links associated with the numbers from 1 to 10.

They are:

1. sun
2. shoe
3. tree
4. door
5. hive
6. sticks
7. heaven
8. skate
9. wine
10. hen


Now, we'll associate these with the top 10 most valuable brands in 2015 as determined by Forbes.

They are:

1. Apple
2. Microsoft
3. Google
4. Coca-Cola
5. IBM
6. McDonald's
7. Samsung
8. Toyota
9. General Electric
10. Facebook


Now, let's make the associations


1. Apple/sun - Imagine the sun shaped as a huge Apple in the sky

2. Microsoft/shoe - Imagine Bill Gates trying on a shoe (with Jerry Seinfeld!)

3. Google/tree - Imagine doing a Google search on your family tree

4. Coca-Cola/door - Imagine a huge Coca-Cola door

5. IBM/hive  - Imagine an IBM computer shaped like a beehive, with bees buzzing around it!

6. McDonald's/stick - Imagine a McDonald's Big Mac or Quarter Pounder on a stick

7. Samsung/heaven - Imagine Samsung Android cellphones in heaven

8. Toyota/skate - Imagine skating around a Toyota vehicle made of ice

9. General Electric/wine - Imagine a GE wine cooler full of vintage wine bottles

10. Facebook/hen - Imagine hens on Facebook!

After you create these images, you'll find it very easy to recite the list from the top or bottom and to instantly recall any number.  Quick, what's number 6?  Stick - McDonald's

With the links, you can substitute other words for the numbers, such as one-gun or eight-gate but any word will do.

Try it.  You'll be amazed at how easy it is!


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Business Start-Up Lessons Of Some Famous Companies Such As Pez

We all know the origins of modern companies such as Google (formed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin), Microsoft (founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen) or Ford (Henry Ford).

However, there are many older well-known companies which were formed by unorthodox but inspirational methods.  Here's the story of some very famous brands.


PEZ

Eduard Haas hated smoking with a passion.  He developed PEZ as a peppermint-flavored candy in the 1920's to substitute for cigarettes for smokers in Austria.  Eventually, he traveled to the United States in the 1950's and tried to do the same thing there.  It didn't catch on and failed.  His solution?  Funny heads on top of the Pez dispenser and fruit flavors so that children would clamor for them.  It became a huge success (and the basis for a Seinfeld episode).

SCRABBLE

If you're an unemployed architect in the 1930's, what do you do?  If your name is Alfred Butts, you can try to invent a game.  He did try but two circumstances delayed its debut: he found a job and his idea was rejected as more intellectual than fun.  In the late 1940's, Butts tried again with a friend and manufactured the game himself.  In a couple of years, Scrabble became a national bestseller selling millions of copies.  Around 30 years later, Trivial Pursuit would follow a similar road to success.  You can read about Trivial Pursuit's success HERE. 

GILLETTE

In the 1890's, 'disposable' items weren't as common as they are now.  Razor blades certainly would be a candidate since most men shave every day and the razors can get pretty dull after a while.  King C. Gillette, a travelling salesman, saw the potential and went to work to perfect a disposable blade.  The concept was simple but making the blade thin enough saw him try and try again hundreds of times.  He succeeded after a few years and Gillette was sold for $57 Billion in 2005.

BIRDSEYE

Frozen dinners, frozen vegetables, frozen fishsticks and other frozen foods are a huge industry and everybody has a freezer stocked with more than just ice cubes.  Charles Birdseye first thought of the idea of commercially-prepared frozen food in the 1910's on an Arctic expedition.  He observed natives in the Arctic preparing caribou meat which had been quick-frozen in the cold and then thawed months later.  The cooked meat still had its original flavor.  The problem was how to duplicate the quick-freezing process in warmer climates where there was no Arctic ice conveniently around.  It took him years but he developed a process that worked and the frozen food industry was born, making him a multi-millionaire by 1929.

Many companies were not formed by a group or committee but rather entrepreneurs who had a brainstorm and saw a public need that could be filled.  Of course, it took years of work to achieve success but their stories are certainly an inspiration for all of us.




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Business Startup Lessons from the Success of Trivial Pursuit

Trivial Pursuit is a game that just about everyone has played at least once in their lives.  More than 100 million copies have been sold throughout the world in more than 15 languages.  Revenue since the game was introduced has measured in the billions of dollars.

However, this game was not created in the offices of gaming giants such as Parker Brothers or Hasbro.  It was created by two friends who had to live together in the same house due to financial difficulties.  They even had to pay for food at times by returning empty beer bottles.  With hard work and a total belief in their idea, they created a runaway success in the world of board games, a very hard field in which to get established.

Everyone is familiar with Trivial Pursuit but what are some lessons can be learned about success?

Billion-Dollar Business Ideas Can Come From Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime

Trivial Pursuit founders Chris Haney and Scott Abbott worked as a newspaper photo editor and sportswriter respectively.  They came up with the idea of a trivia game in 1979 while playing Scrabble over beer.  The layout for the game was written on a bar napkin and then first built with construction paper and a box made of cardboard.

How was Scrabble an inspiration?  They were avid players but kept losing tiles, which meant that they had to keep buying copies of Scrabble as replacements.  They were talking about how much they had spent on board games in their lives and figured "There has to be money to be made in this field."

Thus, what Time magazine called "the biggest phenomenon in game history" was started by two men, one of them a high-school dropout, over Scrabble and beer.  It shows you don't need a committee in a company boardroom of a huge corporation to come up with a multi-million dollar business idea.


Listen To Outside Sources For Advice, Even Family

Haney and Abbott came up with 'Six Thousand Questions' as the title for the game, based on the number of questions it would contain.  They eventually came up with "Trivia Pursuit" but Chris Haney's wife suggest adding an 'l' and renaming it 'Trivial Pursuit'.  A minor change, perhaps, but it became the name known to millions.

Chris' brother John was also brought into the team along with his friend, Ed Werner.  With Ed Werner's legal and finance background, he became an important member in terms of setting up a corporation, arranging financing and other business matters.  This allowed to others to focus on the game itself.

Ideas Need Hard Work To Become Successful

The concept for Trivial Pursuit, in hindsight, was a no-brainer.  A board game where people test their knowledge over fun facts in categories such as Arts and Sports was a great idea for a fun night, especially in the days before internet and advanced computer games.

However, the problems facing the founders were:

1) they had no money themselves to finance the idea and had zero background in the board game industry
2) banks weren't interested in lending any money
3) the board game field itself had dozens of popular games already such as Scrabble, Battleship, Clue, Monopoly, Risk and Life with gaming companies receiving hundreds of new proposals all the time

4) they had to gather together 6,000 good trivia questions

How did they go from an game idea in December 1979 to 20 million copies sold in 1984?

They raised approximately$40,000 from 32 small investors.  These investors included friends, family, colleagues and anyone else who was willing to take a chance.  The 18 year-old artist who designed the logo even traded in his fee for a share (it turned out to be a very lucrative trade-off!).

They went to gaming trade shows in the guise of reporters and learned everything they could about the industry.  Ironically enough, they had little success themselves when they went to these trade shows with their own game.

The 6,000 trivia questions were written and researched on a trip to Spain where Haney and Abbott figured that they would be far enough from any distractions to accomplish the task.  This was done with any many reference books as they could pack as this was the pre-internet era.

Do Whatever It Takes to Get Your Idea Out There

The first copies of Trivial Pursuit cost $75 to make and had to sell for $15 to be competitive.  Of course, this was no way to sustain a business so the point was to get the game out there and expose it to as many people as possible.

The main selling feature was the gameplay itself.  Once people played, they were hooked.  They had free gameplaying sessions in bars and in parks and wherever people gathered.  They sent copies of the game out to celebrities and even received thank-you notes from famous actors such as Gregory Peck.  Even if they weren't able to be picked up at trade shows, the buzz eventually caught the notice of the established companies.  It was like selling a new food product - get as many people to sample as possible!

Trivial Pursuit became a world-wide sensation but it had very humble origins and succeeded because of the hard work and inspiration of its founders.

If you ever have a great idea about a new product, think of how the founders of Trivial Pursuit followed through with their own idea despite having no experience in the field and no money and no access to all of the online resources we have today.  Be persistent and believe in yourself.  You may even see your product referenced on the #1 TV show in the country one day!

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Six Books To Inform and Entertain You

Despite the advent of texting, six-second videos and 500-word blogs, people still read the old-fashioned book with pages made of paper.  It must be the feel of holding a novel in your hands and turning pages that has kept the book popular in its traditional form.

There are tens of thousands of books out there and any visit to a library or bookstore will yield a wealth of wonderful entertainment and useful information.

Here are some personal recommendations.

1) How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

This book was written in 1936 and its fundamental principles are still very relevant today.  These principles are based on positive ways of dealing with people and winning them over to your side.

One example deals with conversation.  Do you prefer to talk or to listen?  If you prefer to listen, you will learn new things from the other person plus they will be impressed by the fact that you listened to them instead of droning on about yourself.

Dale Carnegie's book is very easy to read and it's full of very useful advice that's simple to put into action.  Here's a summary of six ways to make people like you.

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person's name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interest.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

2) How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg

Google is one of the largest companies in the world with over 50,000 employees and a market valuation of over $360 billion.  The authors provide a very entertaining primer on how to operate a huge organization in the rapidly evolving field of technology and online commerce where the time-frame for success can no longer be measured in years.

The customer is the boss and products must be cutting-edge while having the broadest appeal possible (with the knowledge that it may be obsolete much sooner than later).  Having employees who are 'smart creative' is essential but Google has to allow them to thrive, work hard, have fun and be constantly innovative and creative.  How is this done?  'How Google Works' provides many fascinating insights!



3) Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan

It's been just over 100 years since the start of World War I but the world is still dealing with the ramifications of the post-war peace talks in Paris.  The heads of state of Britain, France, Italy and the United States tried to forge a peace while dealing with petitions from delegates who came from all over the globe.

When we read about all of the issues facing our present-day world, from Asia to Europe to the Middle East to Africa, they can be traced to the decisions made in Paris during those six months.  It drives home the point that wars can be won but winning the peace can sometimes be more difficult.  Many of today's international headlines can be traced to the decisions made in the capital of France after the 'War To End All Wars'.


4) Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin

Michael Palin was best-known for his comedic work with Monty Python before he accepted a challenge to travel around the world in 80 days.  The stipulation was that he could only use the same overland methods as in the age of Jules Verne's book, published in 1873.  No airplanes!

His trip,is a great travelogue as he journeys from London, England through Europe, Egypt, Asia and then the Pacific Ocean followed by North America and the Atlantic.  No flying is involved and this brings home the fact that it's often the journey itself that's the fun part, not the destination.

Michael Palin's sense of humor and keen observations make this a wonderful read and a great incentive to plan a trip yourself.  You can also read his other travel books such as 'Pole to Pole' (describing his overland trip from the North Pole to the South Pole via Europe and Africa) or 'Full Circle' (his journey visiting all countries around the rim the Pacific Ocean).



5) Madrigal's Magic Key To Spanish by Margarita Madrigal

I wrote a blog on how learning other languages is a very fun and valuable activity.  Spanish is a language spoken by more than 400 million people in Spain as well as many countries in Central and South America and many areas in the United States.

There are many books and videos which teach Spanish but a great one for beginners is Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish.  It shows how closely related Spanish and English are related and how many words you can learn instantly due to this relationship.   For example, words ending in '-or', '-ble' and '-ion' are virtually identical in English and Spanish.  After a few days of reading this book, you will have a large vocabulary and a very good grasp of everyday grammar.


6) Looptail by Bruce Poon Tip

How do you start an adventure travel company using your credit cards and trying to compete with the huge bus tour companies?  Bruce Poon Tip's account of building G Adventures from scratch to a company serving 100,000 customers a year in 100 countries is very inspiring.  It also gives a very insightful first-hand account on how to operate and grow a company while keeping customers happy, employees engaged, competitors at bay and staying socially responsible.

You can read my review of the book at Looptail Review.  Bruce Poon Tip has written a second inspirational book called 'Do Big Small Things'.  You can learn more about it at the official site. 

The picture is Bruce and myself (along with his wife) in Ecuador.


There are many other books which I can recommend but these six are a good place to start if you are looking for some new reading reading material.

Stay true to the written word and read!



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How To Memorize A List Easily: Top 10 Corporations

You've probably had to memorize lists in school for subjects such as history and even today there are many Top 10 lists for everything from sports teams rankings to country GDP rankings to music charts.

There is a method to memorizing a Top 10 list which is both easy and fun.  Plus, you can recite the list backwards and even name what is number 7 or 3 or any of the numbers.

How Is It Done?

Cutting to the chase, here are the links to every number which you will associate with the items on the list.

They are:

1. sun
2. shoe
3. tree
4. door
5. hive
6. sticks
7. heaven
8. skate
9. wine
10. hen


As an example, we'll use the top 10 American companies by market value (as of March 2015).

They are:

1. Apple
2. Google
3. Berkshire Hathaway
4. Exxon Mobil
5. Microsoft
6. Johnson and Johnson
7. Wells Fargo
8. Wal-Mart
9. General Electric
10. Procter & Gamble


Other methods of memorizing the list would have you doing it by rote or trying to make a story.  You could say "I wanted to an Apple store so I Googled the nearest location and sold some Berkshire stock to afford a tablet and stopped by Exxon to fill up....".   This is obviously tedious and not very useful if you wanted to know what was #7 or #10.

The method with the links is much easier and works like this.  Remember to visualize!

1. Apple/sun - Imagine the sun shaped as a huge apple in the sky

2. Google/shoe - Imagine doing a Google search for shoes

3. Berkshire Hathaway/tree - Imagine  CEO Warren Buffet up a tree!

4. Exxon Mobil/door - Imagine applying Exxon Oil to a door to stop it from squeaking

5. Microsoft/hive  - Imagine Bill Gates being attacked by a swarm of bees after he knocks over their hive.

6. Johnson & Johnson/stick - Imagine a Johnson and Johnson band-aid holding a stick 

7. Wells Fargo/heaven - Imagine seeing a well in heaven

8. Wal-Mart/skate - Imagine buying a thousand low-price skates at Wal-Mart

9. General Electric/wine - Imagine a GE cooler full of vintage wine bottles

10. Procter and Gamble/hen - Imagine a hen gambling  Prock! Prock!

After you create these images, you'll find it very easy to recite the list from the top or bottom and to instantly recall any number.  Quick, what's number 6?  Stick - Johnson and Johnson

With the links, you can substitute other words for the numbers, such as one-gun or eight-gate but any word will do.

Try it.  You'll be amazed at how easy it is!


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