This went popular on Digg a few hours ago, but it still deserves the attention of everyone that’s yet to see it.

A professor, weeks away from death, recently shared his last lecture. One of his quotes mentioned in the video really got to me:

“Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.”

Watch this short video a few times, and appreciate all you have while you still have it.

For those of you who that payed attention to TechCrunch 20 40, mint needs no introduction. mint walked away with the $50,000 prize and a boat load of publicity producing enough traffic to make their servers beg for mercy. With everything back up and running, I signed up for an account and gave it a test run. Despite all the buzz and hype I have to say I’m still very impressed.

Read the rest of this entry →

The second PWNAGE from CollegeHumor.

Most small businesses would define branding as the identity by which their company is recognized and all of the items it’s associated with, whether that be an advertisement, business card, voicemail message, etc… This would be correct by definition. But when it comes to owning something with your brand, many b-schools, books, and articles don’t touch on that.

By owning an object, I mean a physical object, colour, saying, sound, style, phrase, shape, packaging, texture, or anything that you could uniquely call your own. Something that people can identify, relate to, and instantly associate with your brand.

Below, you’ll find 9 examples of brand ownership from the past and present, without the brand. See if you can name the brand behind each item and post your numbered guesses in the comments.

Note: You have to click on number 5 to hear the audio clue.

These examples are pretty easy. Of course, all of the companies behind these brands are massive compared to our small businesses, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and create a branding object to call our own. It’s actually much simpler for an entrepreneur to find a unique object to own because of our market size and chanches are, our competition lacks any sense of branding insight.

I’ll post the brand behind each of the objects tomorrow. Until then, see if you can go 10 for 10.

You young go getters got pretty close, with 9 out of 10, but that last one may not have been as distinctive a palette as I thought. Here are the correct answers.

1) Fender, 2) Corona, 3) Tiffany’s, 4) Kanye West, 5) MSN Messenger, 6) Mary Kay, 7) Rolling Stones, 8) Swingline, 9) Altoids, 10) Kodak.

Zhang Xin is one of the most powerful real estate divas in China. The CEO of Soho recently shared these 5 business tips with the WSJ…

1. Believe you’re the most privileged person for being in the right place at the right time.
2. Enjoy competition; there is always plenty.
3. Enjoy a healthy dose of insecurity; always try harder.
4. Never think too much about wealth, It’s a means for advancing civilization.
5. Go to bed early.

There you have it, all it takes to be a real estate mogul in modern day China. Now go to bed!