FunnyBusiness: Everything About Business Except The Bottom Line

Women Entrepenuers in Afghanistan

  Last night I saw the   documentary,The Beauty Academy of Kabul, --the story of six American hairdressers --funded by the Beauty Industry---who go to Kabul, Afghanistan in 2003 to open a beauty school.

Watching the documentary inspired me to do some research on the state of working women in Afghanistan. You can read that post on blogher.

You can listen to an interview on NPR's Fresh Air with the film's director Liz Mermin and academy teacher Shaima Ali.

If the documentary is not playing in your community, you can sign up for an email alert letting you known when it's on DVD.

Image Credit: Shadow Distribution

Kenneth Lay Dies aka Can't Get No Satisfaction

When you are dubbed the "most hated man in Corporate America", the news of your  untimely death at a ski resort a day after Independence Day will inspire conspiracy theories, good riddance wishes ,and the nagging thought in many  that he "got off too easy".

As expected,  the blogosphere is debating, Did he fake his death?
From Bitch Ph.D

They want us to believe that the good lord has struck Ken Lay down, but I heard he bought a body on the black market and is hiding out in Dick Cheney's garage.

And  from the comment section of Newscoma ,who had written a play by play post called "Ken Lay's Last Act, Freaking Out Wikipedia,"

"Dave said...       

       

I have hard evidence that Ken was killed by the Freemasons because he was about to reveal secrets about the Illuminati and the New World Order. It was made to look like a heart attack by the same people who tried to cover up the UFO crash at Roswell.

I also have passages from the Bible that show exactly how this incident will effect global warming.

      

7/05/2006 10:56:03 PM      

newscoma said...               

       

I was leaning toward Bigfoot, but yours is much more plausible."

Some reactions were surprising, as Barbara Walters announced the news on The View, she offered up her perspective on the cause of death, and as Jossip so aptly noted,  she used The Breaking News to transition to a segment on the stress of having dads in the delivery room. Perhaps the stress of the Star Jones pleasantries is clouding her better news judgment.

However, it's the news  being reported in the Wall Street Journal ( I would link but it's a subscription publication) that is apt to really goad the thousands of employees and investors who saw their life savings evaporate because of Lay's lies.

For many, there was some comfort that he would have to spend the remaining days of his life in prison.Turns out that since Lay died before his case could be appealed, his criminal conviction is likely to be expunged.

Mr. Lay's death likely will erase his conviction. Under prior decisions by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals -- which includes Houston, where he was convicted -- a person who dies before his appeal is completed isn't considered convicted. His death also likely will end the efforts of prosecutors to seize through the criminal proceeding Mr. Lay's remaining assets, since he may no longer be considered a felon, said Wayne State University law professor Peter Henning. Kathryn Ruemmler, one of the lead prosecutors in the criminal trial of Mr. Lay and Mr. Skilling, declined to comment.


However, existing civil suits by the Securities and Exchange Commission and attorneys representing Enron investors can presumably continue against Mr. Lay's estate. Whether those civil cases can extract much is unclear. Mr. Lay claimed during trial that his fortune, which once was estimated to be several hundred million dollars, had largely been wiped out. Much of his holdings had been in Enron stock, which fell to pennies a share after the company's bankruptcy.

As Linda Ellerbee would say, "And so it goes."

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck

In traditional media it's easy to  differentiate between direct marketing, advertising and pure information pieces. It's not so easy when visiting blogs. They all look and often sound like point of view pieces--information that the blogger is sharing strictly for the sake of sharing information. Over the years, I've had several friends who have "invited" me to attend an introductory seminar for EST and then later, the Landmark Forums. Both promised to help me reach my human potential. I always liked the idea of reaching my human potential. I just never liked the price tag. Or the scientology-zest that members seemed to have for  all things Forum. I never signed up. Blogs are full of recommendation on how to reach your human potential as an entrepeneur. As I was surfing the blogs this weekend to get a sense of how work -at- home moms were planning to deal with having the kids home for the summer, I came across some blogs that were talking about their Mastermind groups. My first introduction was Wendy Piersall's eMoms At Home.

"You may be wondering what a Mastermind group is. Each week, for 16 weeks, we get together with our group of 3-4 people, and publically make known what we are committing to do within the next 7 days. These are commitments above and beyond what we are currently committed to. We also then impose our own consequences. I don't mean light consequences, either - these have to be REALLY PAINFUL consequences. Such as, two of the women in my group have committed to giving each of the other participants $100 if they don't do what they say they are going to do. Another said she would have to go without makeup for a week. I said I would have to grow out my usually well hidden moustache - and don't forget, I am a woman ;). This is just the leverage I need to move ahead on all of my new home-based business projects. I'm already through 5 of my 11 commitments and we just started yesterday. But I'll also admit that I took the easy ones out first!"

Her blog had a link to winbig.org- a site she says she just discovered that day because of her MasterMind Group. As she says,

"WinBig has a series of programs for business growth, leadership training, and, not surprisingly, Mastermind groups! Particularly intriguing is his free Six Steps to SuperGrowth - a 6-CD set audio program. I'm downloading as I type."

Of course when you visit the winbig.org website you'll find that while there are some freebies, participating in their programs is far from cheap. Judith Morgan, who writes about wealth creation for entrepreneurs,is also recommending the power of Mastermind groups.

"All it takes is a dream, a team, and a theme to create a stream of perpetual income."   From The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen. Keep learning, keep fresh and get support and what better way to do this than with a Dream Team or in a Mastermind Group?  People love to help others; you only have to work out what you want and then seek out the experts, the Masterminds, and ask for their help.   The worse that can happen is that they say no. But you've gotta hang with the right group.

Then there is Lynnelle Bianco's Bold Business Vision blog which has had just four or five posts in the past 18 months and serves as a  marketing device for  Bold Vision Consulting which,like Winbig.org, promotes Mastermind groups via their Ocular Forum.

"Ocular Forum was created with Napoleon Hill’s concept of the Master Mind group in mind. You can read about Hill's Master Mind philosophy in his books, Laws of Success and Think and Grow Rich."

Which brings us back to Werner Erhard,the controversial founder of EST. Seems that Mr. Erhard, shared the same fascination with Napolean Hill that the organizers of Mastermind Groups share.

"Of more interest to his transformation, however, are the books he read and was influenced by. William Warren Bartley III (Werner Erhard: the Transformation of a Man) tells us that Erhard was "profoundly dissatisfied with the competitive and meaningless status quo" and was deeply affected by Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. Hill's three basic principles are: every achievement begins with an idea; plans call for their implementation and; what you think is what you do. Think positive, you will do positive deeds. Hill also advised visualizing objectives and selecting similar-minded friends. Hill gives good advice, but it is very vague and is not very systematic. It doesn't offer much to people who haven't got a clue what their objectives are or should be."

Do these proponents of Mastermind groups need to share with me that the same person who influenced the creation of EST and The Forum is also the inspiration for MasterMind Groups?

If the groups are effective and working for folks should I care?

Is it deceitful to omit that little bit of information when talking about these Mastermind Groups?

And,if a blogger receives a fee for referrals to a program, do they have an obligation to share that with their reader?

The issues for me isn't the benefits and strengths of having a network of entrepeneurs to help you visualize and achieve your goals. I certainly don't have a problem  with someone paying me $100 if they don't complete their action steps for the week.

The issue is I want to know when I am reading a a blog-atisement and when I'm reading a blog.  That way if it's supposed to be a duck, I won't be surprised when it quacks.

This is cross posted at Blogher

Image Credit: Flickr memberFancy Hunt.

Will Swarm of Angels fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee?

If there is one thing about web 2.0 that you can say with certainty -- it will have an impact on just about every possible industry sector and profession. The question is. what industry is next and just how hard a hit will it feel?

If the folks at A Swarm of Angels have anything to say about it, Hollywood will be feel the punch of web 2.0 as it" flys like a butterfly and stings like a bee."

A Swarm of Angels bills itself as "remixing Hollywood"

A Swarm of Angels reinvents the Hollywood model of filmmaking to create cult cinema for the Internet era. It's all about making an artistic statement, making something you haven't seen before. Why are we doing this? Because we are tired of films that are made simply to please film executives, sell popcorn, or tie-in with fastfood licensing deals.

We want to invent the future of film. Call it Cinema 2.0.
To do it we need your help.

The concept is that 50,000 people will contribute 25 (its in British pounds and I have no idea where to find that symbol in Typepad) and in exchange people can download it, share it, use it as they want.

The idea is from writer and  filmaker Mark Hanson who has

'directed a number of digital short films, produced over 40 short films, and two TV series. He also founded the massively influential onedotzero digital film festival which he directed between 1996 and 2002 (co-directing the 1998 festival onwards). He has written a series of books about the future of film–including The    End of Celluloid: Film Futures in the Digital Age–and now he wants to invent that future by enlisting your help in making his first feature film in a completely unique way. Screen International have already labelled him an ‘International film visionary.’

 

 

Hat Tip to Emily Chang

Image Credit: Flickr member Ryan Gessner

Daring To Blog Full-Time

Just over four years ago Jon Gruber registered the domain name "Daring Fireball". He didn't start writing his blog for another five months.  Just a few months later, Gruber got lots of people's attention when he covered a story about a bogus testimonial that Microsoft had made up about a woman switching from a MAC to a PC.
That story Microsoft Make-Up got Gruber lots of attention.  He has not disappointed.

According to the Blog Herald ,Gruber has decided to leave his day job and try to make a go of it as a full-time blogger

"As an avowed Mac geek, Gruber’s blog is one of the key blogs to read for all things related to Apple, their computers, their software, and just about any related topics. Daring Fireball also reaches out into many other topics, all of which Gruber handles with class and a great writing style that I only wish I could emulate.

If you’re like to support John’s work at Daring Fireball, visit his memberships page."

Gruber, circa 1977

In announcing his decision last week, Gruber talks about the business of blogging . The decision to go full time has been two years in the making. His business model-- membership based. $19 a year, Free when you purchase a  T-shirt. And, you can purchase as many T shirts as you want.

"When I launched the membership program two years ago, I wasn’t sure whether it would be a failure, a bonanza, or something in-between. Ends up it was something in-between. I mean that in a good way, because it was way more successful than I honestly expected. But it was also less than I had sort of secretly hoped.

What I wanted was for this to be easy — for the revenue from the memberships and t-shirts sales to amount to something that, when combined with the money from a modest dose of advertising, would clearly constitute a reasonable full-time salary.

But there’s a reason why you can’t say, “Wow, look at all those people supporting their families with their weblogs devoted to deeply intricate Mac and web nerdery,” or, really, why there aren’t that many people supporting themselves full-time from their weblogs, period. That reason is because it isn’t easy."

In the end, Gruber said he decided to take the jump because "Daring Fireball is what I love to do."
In his post Gruber says,

One point I want to impress upon you is that the proper response to this announcement isn’t so much “Congratulations” as it is “Good luck, I hope it works”. Success is far from assured, and I’m feeling more than a little gut-wrenching uncertainty.

It’s difficult for me to write this sort of thing, to step out from behind the curtain and address you, the reader, directly — as I wrote two years ago, “Just me, your humble author, hat in hand, heart in throat, asking for your support”.

For those of you who think this is worthwhile, however, that’s what I’m doing: asking for your support. And I don’t know how to do so otherwise."

There are more than a few bloggers who will be watching and hoping that Gruber is very successful at this venture.