Pam Slim of Escape From Cubicle Nation gave a talk at Google headquarters in CA earlier in the week, which offers listens a wide range of career change ideas.  As many of you know I am quite a fan of Pam and the work she continues to do around small business startups and ultimately finding your true passion in life.  I continue to find her information practical and enjoyable at the same time.  So of course I was more than excited to find the discussion she did on Youtube today.  If you interested in starting your own side business or exploring other types of work in your life, I would encourage you to take a small piece of time out of your day, sit back, and enjoy the talk on career change ideas:

There comes a point in every entrepreneur’s career when you will have a project that you can’t do on your own whether it be developing  a awesome web app or setting up your new website.  Also, there simply might just be things you know how to do, but don’t want to have to do because you’ve done them 10,000 times before!  That’s where oDesk.com comes in.  oDesk is a online community and tool used to outsource work where one such as yourself can hire someone to do just about anything from designing a website to researching your next book!

Find a freelancer:

I’ve been using oDesk for several months now and can easily say without a doubt that it’s by far the best small business job site to find a freelancer when you’re looking to hire someone whether it be short or long-term.  I have personally hired 4 different people for 4 different projects now on oDesk, and it couldn’t have been any easier.  From posting the job to paying for the the completed work and every step in between, I can confidently say that I had no troubles thanks to the excellent site design and helpful community.  To really show you just how oDesk works, take a look at this enjoyable video I found, which explains the oDesk experience perfectly:

I’ve recently launched a mobile app company with two friends and currently we are working with a developer to code our mobile application since none of us have any actual iPhone coding experience.  Once again, it couldn’t be an easier process.  So whether you’re looking to find a freelancer to help you on a project or you’re looking to make some extra money as a freelancer, oDesk has you covered and doesn’t cost a penny.

The primary employee motivator for most businesses these days continues to be money.  The idea is straight forward enough.  If you want people to work harder, then you pay them more money (bonuses, pay increases, etc…) in order to motivate them through some sort of cash incentive.  A recent study done by MIT decided to put this theory to the test to see if various cash incentives actually motivate people to work harder towards a specific end goal.  Below is an awesome clip that summarizes the test done by MIT and the results found, which I think will shock most people.  Take a look for yourself:

The most interesting result to me was that while money worked to motivate people to work harder if the work required little thought, it actually didn’t motivate people at all if the work required any type of critical thinking.  That’s not to say people shouldn’t be compensated for working harder, but rather that companies should consider looking for additional (more effective) ways to motivate employees to get certain tasks done.  The clip above also touches on some ways a few companies out there are already looking to these additional methods to get people more motivated.

No matter where you go or how successful you become, there will always be people that don’t like you for one reason or another.  As a entrepreneur, I feel you run into this situation far more often where people (usually jealous or misinformed) will discourage your work and seem to completely miss the point of what you’re trying to accomplish.  Anytime you do anything outside of the “norm” of society, you should expect to be met with some form of resistance, but the good news is their opinion is just that and nothing more.  All that really matters when it comes to your next start-up are the people that actually get it.  Forget the haters and simply move on.


Tim Ferriss recently gave a presentation on the very topic of how to grow your business by overcoming haters.  It’s a short presentation that does a great job at highlighting some common problem scenarios and simple (yet effective) ways to deal with them so you can move on with your day and focus on growing your business, which is what’s really important.

At some point in your life for one reason or another regardless of whether you aim to be an entrepreneur or not, you will more than likely hold a corporate job of some kind.  Many of you probably realize that finding your dream job can be a very difficult thing, and most people just end up settling for something that pays good (and doesn’t want to make them jump out the window).  In the fierce world of job competition, you probably appreciate any help you can get as I know I sure do.


I’ve always said the internet is a great tool for just about anything.  With some brain power you can do just about anything right from your home computer, which includes landing your dream job.  Take a look at the short video below, which demonstrates how one very clever person used a simple website and some Google ads with very little effort to land his dream job.  My hat goes off to this guy!

Building traffic is one those things any website owner or blogger wants to do, but doesn’t always know how.  While many people will point you to social networking, there are few who actually tell you how to use social networking to build traffic.  Facebook has over 300 million users spaning across the globe! Taking the time to make a fan page on Facebook is a great way to build traffic to your blog or website. It’s also a excellent way to promote a product, event, or anything else you want a lot of people to see. I recently created a fan page for my blog (techlifemashup.com), and have been quite happy with the early success of it. I would encourage anyone else who is interested in maintaining an easy channel of communication among many around their blog or website to also look into using this tool. More »

Feel like your office or cubicle has become a highly unproductive place to work these days?  Well, you’re not alone.  Workspaces such as offices and cubicles continue to dominate much of the big business world despite proven studies and research that continue to show that such work environments are severely outdated and actually are very unproductive to the average employee.  Not only are they unproductive, but they are many times the added cause for a whole of of unnecessary stress in our day to day lives.


So what’s the solution you ask? 
Technology makes it possible today for most people to do their jobs from just about anywhere including the comfort of their own homes.  Working from home is a trend catching on quickly in the workplace and rightfully so.  Employees are less stressed, distracted, and and tend to get more work done over actually being in the office.  At the same time, businesses actually save money by cutting costs such as office space and other employee resources not needed when one works at home.  Jason Fried is the co-founder of 37Signals, which is a successful web-application company who prides themselves on forward thinking and increasing productivity through the use of virtual offices (working at home).  Here what he has to say in this interesting discussion:

This idea that time is the greatest measurement of wealth is a fairly new concept, but has already caught on with many others.  Typically those looking for an entrepreneur opportunity of their own are the folks who find themselves reading up on such ideas.  The 4-Hour Workweek as I have mentioned previously uses the idea of time=wealth as the foundation for a whole new way of working and living your life.  Rolf Potts (a huge inspiration for the 4-hour workweek) is a recognized travel writer who strongly recommends independent travel and a lifestyle that is off the beaten path.  He is also the author of the popular travel book: Vagabonding.


Rolf recently gave a presentation as part of the DoLecture series about the importance of time, travel, and how you can accomplish both these things without having to wait until your ready to retire!  Anyone who is looking for some entrepreneur opportunity in their own life should definitely check out his presentation below.  Rolf makes several great points about keeping it simple and living the life you want now.  It’s all about getting out there and taking action.  See what Potts is talking about:

Seek out entrepreneur opportunity through your own defined path.

Whether you work in an office or on your laptop at home, work for many these days seems to continue to grow faster than we can keep up with it.  Meetings, deadlines, emails, phone calls, and repeat day in and day out.  Managing your time effectively with such a busy schedule crucial to getting it all done.  Now take work and mix in a personal life with a 100 other responsibilities and you get a recipe for stress and frustration for many very quickly.  As a person who wears many hats so to speak, I am always looking for new ways to simplify work and make things just a little easier and a whole lot less stressful.  So in an effort to reduce your work today, I wanted to take some time to highlight 10 easy ways to simplify work both in and out of the office. More »

Google Voice continues to be a popular choice for any entrepreneur running a small business out of their own home and how can blame them.  It’s a free service with a free phone number and plenty of useful features.  The only cost to the end user is for making calls, which similar to Skype is pretty cheap.  While Google Voice is not a actual VoIP service by definition (yet!), it’s still a great product for any entrepreneur at home or on the go with their cell phone.  Thanks to the powers that be and more so to friendly competition, Google Voice is not your only alternative.  Entrepreneurs may be shocked to hear that there is actually another similar free service that goes by the name of Phonebooth, which could serve up some decent competition for the search giant.  This is good news for you and me! More »