Easy Tips To Capture Your Million Dollar Idea

My work requires me to interact with many types of people. And, during the course of my meeting them I have come up with three categories of people so far, based on my observations on how people manage their work:

1. People who rely one-hundred-percent on their memory. These people remember each and every detail of what has been discussed.

2. People who do not rely on their memory, and always carry a small notebook with them. Such people are meticulous, highly efficient, steadfast, and always well-organized.

3. People who rely one-hundred-percent on their memory, but do not have the capability to afterwards remember the details of the discussion. This reduces their productivity.

Writing things down helps in collecting and organizing your thoughts. Your thoughts seem more concrete when you can see them in front of you. I like thinking on paper, because it forces me to be specific with my thoughts. Plus, I have my thinking process written down so that I have a way of recollecting my thoughts.

I also find that writing my ideas down tend to lighten my mental load. Once written down, I can let that thought bubble burst. By letting one thought subside, I can easily move on to another with a blank slate.

I own several idea notebooks to keep track of spontaneous ideas. I prefer the small spiral bound books that fits in your hands. They are easy to fit in a purse or pocket, which means I am more likely to carry it with me. I get mine from Target for $1.29, they have a hardcover with a snap closure. I have them sprinkled around the house and inside every bag I own, so that I’ll always have something to dump my thoughts on.

Ever since I’ve adopted to writing everything down, not a thought is lost. This also makes linking ideas easy when I need to do creative brainstorming.

Thx to Think Simple. Be Decisive

5 ways to profit from million dollar ideas

Here are 5 ways to profit from the million dollar ideas.

1. Assume your idea is terrible. Assuming an idea is terrible can be quite liberating. This is not the same as not believing in what you are doing and it is not about being negative. On the contrary, it is about changing the frame of reference to give due consideration to the real operating conditions. Consider the advantage of having accurate maps and a compass to navigate from one place to another rather than a ball of string and a vague idea. Having an accurate understanding of the conditions has its advantages. It prevents people and companies from squandering resources on dead ends or irrelevant excursions. Anyone moving forward who is positive, highly motivated and well equipped with accurate, relevant information and sound plans becomes virtually unstoppable. Eliminating the tendency to rely on untested assumptions can be done by simply assuming a product or idea is a terrible one and then taking steps toward making it better.
2. Know your customer, industry and business well enough to publish a book. Writing is a process that distills thought. Corporate innovators are often asked to prepare detailed plans. Companies employ a variety of planning tools and they can be tremendous aids in working through the necessary thought processes. Everyone seeking funding who has approached professional finance people to get a project financed is aware that he or she is expected to come with a written business plan. The thought process that goes into the writing is more important than the document itself.
3. Steal from others and let others steal from you. Copy, copy, copy. Originality is overrated. The advantages of duplication over originality are numerous. Something that has already become tried and true is just that: tried and true. That decreases the risk and uncertainty considerably. Duplicating something is less costly than producing an original. Something that has been in use has likely had a lot of the bugs knocked out of it and has already become perceived as useful and acceptable. For manufactured products, it is almost always less risky, faster, cheaper and easier to incorporate an existing part already in production than to design and make an original.
4. Create a powerful network of outside advisors. The importance and value of having a powerful network of outside advisors cannot be overstated. Famous inventor Thomas Edison surrounded himself with the most powerful people in the world. He needed a great deal of help to develop his grand visions so he went to whatever lengths were needed to get that help. As an example of an Edison gathering, he had United States President Herbert Hoover, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone at his 82nd birthday party in Fort Myers, Florida on February 11, 1929. Successful people are usually more than happy to share constructive insights and where appropriate will exercise candor if something seems off.
5. Involve and embrace passionate customers in the development and marketing processes. For most types of innovations, there are ways to actively engage end embrace passionate leading customers in the development and marketing processes. This can happen at an early stage or long after a product or service has matured. Bringing customers in close can be a tremendous aid to the innovation process. Innovators would be remiss if they did not consider this approach.

The above 5 ways are intended for those who are interested in achieving commercial success and maximizing profits from their million dollar ideas.

Based on lifehack ideas

Million Dollar Idea - Online Videos Can Make You Rich

More and more data go speeding along the information superhighway every day. Only trouble is, the roads in the U.S. are too narrow, and they're getting clogged. Unless carrying capacity increases rapidly, Internet users will experience more and more traffic jams in the form of slower service.

So capital spending is going to have to ramp up. And no two companies should benefit more than Corning, the leading maker of optical fiber that carries data, and Cisco, the top manufacturer of switching systems that direct how all the packets of information get to their destination.

The U.S. led the development of the Internet, but during the past decade it has fallen behind other countries. Canada, France, Japan and the U.K. are all better connected, according to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, based on speed, price and availability of service.
In fact, the U.S. is rated a dismal 15th. That's untenable. Traffic per person is several times as heavy in some other parts of the world.

There are several reasons America is so far back in the pack. Smaller countries such as South Korea and Finland have an easier time reaching the vast majority of domestic consumers.
And ironically, the U.S. suffers because of its earlier leadership. Countries that adopt a technology later often get to invest in more modern and less expensive systems after the bugs have been worked out.
Another reason the U.S. trails: the long hangover that followed the tech wreck. Companies overinvested in telecom during the boom of the late 1990s. When that bubble burst, there was lots of excess capacity that wasn't fully employed for at least five years. By the time all the old gear and wiring were fully in use, networks had become outdated. So the U.S. is going to have to build additional networks and upgrade existing ones.

More video, more bandwidth

There's a reason capacity is being eaten up: the availability of audio and video Web programming and the growing appetite for it. Audio files use roughly five times as much bandwidth as text, and video can require 45 times as much, says Robert Shapiro, author of "Futurecast" and chairman of Sonecon, a consulting firm that has done extensive research on the Internet.

And there's more driving this demand than YouTube. Online television watching is going mainstream. The major broadcast networks have all set up sites that offer streaming video on demand for many popular shows. And online HDTV, as well as technologies yet to come, will require far more capacity.

Sooner or later, the need for greater bandwidth will spark a construction boom. "Over the next 20 years, capital spending on Internet infrastructure in the U.S. could be 50% to 100% more than is anticipated today," says Shapiro.
A broad range of companies will benefit, and new competitors will doubtless enter the field. But established leaders such as Corning and Cisco should reap much of the gains. Annual earnings growth for both stocks is projected to average 14% or more over the next five years. And though results may be subpar for the next few quarters, they should pick up robustly before the end of 2009.

Bargains that won't last

Corning (GLW, Fortune 500) and Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500) have had big runs at various points in the past three years, but their share prices have slumped recently. So despite stellar prospects and little debt, both stocks now trade at less than 17 times earnings.
That's a reflection of today's poor economic prospects, as well as the fact that large growth stocks remain undervalued compared with the shares of slower-growing but steadier companies. If you're a long-term investor, this situation represents a perfect buying opportunity.

Corning has three major businesses that offer high potential growth. The most dynamic at the moment is liquid crystal displays. Sales for that division rose 58% in the most recent quarter.

Corning's optical-fiber business isn't nearly as robust now, but that will change as Internet capital spending ramps up. The third important division makes high-tech emission-control systems, especially for trucks. This business is growing at double-digit rates and could pick up further as concern for the environment intensifies.
Cisco, of course, is the world leader in Internet equipment, particularly the switches and routers that direct the flow of information. Cisco's share price has fallen 24% from its 2007 high on recession fears, even though the company is posting double-digit gains in sales and earnings.

Cisco has also steadily bought back stock: It has repurchased more than $52 billion over the past seven years. That gives shareholders great potential for capital gains as more and more people use computers to watch 30 Rock and Lost on their own schedules and clog up the Internet in the process

CNN

Top 10 Tips from a High School Drop Out Millionaire

Christine Comaford-Lynch – once a high school drop-out, teenage runaway, Buddhist monk, lingerie model, geisha trainee, software engineer and hospice worker. I met Christine 2 weeks ago at a women conference in Berkeley.

Christine became an entrepreneur at age 27. She was 5 times CEO averaged about 700% returns on investment. She invested in over 200 companies as a venture capitalist and angel investor, including Google and many successful companies. She consulted to over 700 of Fortune 1000 companies. She was the advisor to the White House for the Clinton & Bush administration. She is a business accelerator and advisors for many companies. She was successfully retired at 40. Christine recently founded Mighty Venture to help people to discover both their personal and business potential in a fun and effective way that fosters connection and community.

Here are some lessons that I learnt from Christine’s panel discussions:

1. Slow Down – Don’t try to do everything at once in 95 miles per hour speed. Multi-tasking is great, but it is very difficult to be excellent in every single areas of your life. Focus on one thing at a time. Your heart, your voice and vision all need to be focused.
   
2. Perseverance – Don’t give up. There is no get rich quick scheme.
   
3. Change Fast – When things go wrong, don’t dwell on it. Move on and change your strategy and direction fast.
   
4. Take Risk – No Risk No Gain
   
5. Stretch / Growth – If you are not growing, you are dying. Always stretch yourself to learn new things.
   
6. Never a problem – Everything has a solution. Don’t think you only have problems, find solutions
   
7. Choose the right partners – Fire them if you need to.
   
8. Self Identify – Everything is an illusion. Pick the one that is fun. Choose your own identity. Don’t let investors to set your values for you.
   
9. Build Emotion Equity – When approaching investors or buyers, help them and build emotional equity with them. Make sure they want your venture to succeed as much as you do.
   
10. Life = the people you meet + what you create together. Build the connection and community with everyone around you.

Thx to Youngster Inc

How to Become a Millionaire Next Door. The Real Story

Paul Navone is one of those quiet millionaires next door. His friends had no idea he had money until he started giving it away -- $1 million to a college and another $1 million to a prep school. The 78-year-old retiree never made more than $11 an hour while working in the New Jersey mills, according to a story by Joe Logan in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and to this day Navone buys his clothing at thrift stores, and doesn't have a TV or a phone.

Navone, the son of Italian immigrants, quit school and went to work at age 16. He lived at home and saved. After two years in the Army, he bought the first of several rental properties. He lived off that income, saved his wages and turned to investing, the Inquirer story says. "Paul has always been the perfect client. He gave me money and never took it out," said broker R. Douglas Smithson, senior vice president for investments at Wachovia Securities in Vineland. "He took my advice, he stuck to a plan, and he reaped the benefits of it."

Navone, who lives in a small house in Millville, said, "My motto back then without realizing it -- and it is now -- is that I'll work for the money, and then I want the money to work for me."