1. I believe that if anything is worth doing, it would have been done already.

2. I shall never move quickly, except to avoid more work or find excuses.

3. I will never rush into a job without a lifetime of consideration.

4. I shall meet all of my deadlines directly in proportion to the amount of bodily injury I could expect to receive from missing them.

5. I firmly believe that tomorrow holds the possibility for new technologies, astounding discoveries, and a reprieve from my obligations.

6. I truly believe that all deadlines are unreasonable regardless of the amount of time given.

7. I shall never forget that the probability of a miracle, though infinitesimally small, is not exactly zero.

8. If at first I don’t succeed, there is always next year.

9. I shall always decide not to decide, unless of course I decide to change my mind.

10. I shall always begin, start, initiate, take the first step, and/or write the first word, when I get around to it.

11. I obey the law of inverse excuses which demands that the greater the task to be done, the more insignificant the work that must be done prior to beginning the greater task.

12. I know that the work cycle is not plan/start/finish, but is wait/plan/plan.

13. I will never put off until tomorrow, what I can forget about forever.

14. I will become a member of the ancient Order of Two-Headed Turtles (the Procrastinator’s Society) if they ever get it organized.

On some parts, I’m probably right – but on many, I’m flat-out wrong. This is demonstrated by a recent report from the Kauffman foundation for entrepreneurship.  The report, “The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur,” is based on a survey of 549 company founders across a variety of industries.

Here are some of the points from the report that I found the most interesting.

1. The average and median age of company founders when they started their current companies was 40.

2. 95.1 percent of respondents themselves had earned bachelor’s degrees, and 47 percent had more advanced degrees.

3. Less than 1 percent came from extremely rich or extremely poor backgrounds

4. 15.2% of founders had a sibling that previously started a business.

5. 69.9 percent of respondents indicated they were married when they launched their first business. An additional 5.2 percent were divorced, separated, or widowed.

6. 59.7 percent of respondents indicated they had at least one child when they launched their first business, and 43.5 percent had two or more children.

7. The majority of the entrepreneurs in the sample were serial entrepreneurs. The average number of businesses launched by respondents was approximately 2.3.

8. 74.8 percent indicated desire to build wealth as an important motivation in becoming an entrepreneur.

9. Only 4.5 percent said the inability to find traditional employment was an important factor in starting a business.

10. Entrepreneurs are usually better educated than their parents.

11. Entrepreneurship doesn’t always run in the family. More than half (51.9 percent) of respondents were the first in their families to launch a business.

12. The majority of respondents (75.4 percent) had worked as employees at other companies for more than six years before launching their own companies.

Which surprises you the most and alters your mental model of what entrepreneurs are like?

About The Author:

Dharmesh Shah is a serial software entrepreneur. He is currently the founder and CTO of HubSpot, which provides marketing software for small businesses. The company, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has raised over $17 million in capital, and has over 1,400 customers. Dharmesh also authors OnStartups.com, a popular startup blog with over 15,000 subscribers and 80,000 members in its online community. He is an angel investor and a frequent speaker on the topic of startups and inbound marketing. He has a B.S. from UAB and an M.S. from MIT. He can be found on twitter as @dharmesh.

Ajit Balakrishnan is perhaps one of the most tech-savvy entrepreneurs in the country. And his IT-savvy does not lie in using technology for its own sake, but using it to create services for the consumer. Always striving to create technologically sophisticated platforms but with a penchant for user-friendly and simple interfaces, Ajit is a part of important think tanks such as the review committee on Indian Information Technology Act and Confederation of Indian Industry s (CII) task force on e-Commerce.

In a no holds barred interview with Tabrez Khan, the Rediff CEO almost manages to give one a feeling of a virtual tour of IT’s evolution in the Indian Industry.

What are the key factors that determine success in your industry? How are you as a company responding to these challenges?

We are a consumer business in the sense that we deal with users. In India there are 30 million PC users and 100 million on the mobile phone. Success is not essentially about technology but figuring out what are the real issues people have in life and trying to solve them through innovative use of technology.

For example recently when the CAT results were announced, 300,000 candidates and their multiple relatives wanted to simultaneously know how they had fared. We responded by enabling CAT results on the mobile phone, which meant that candidates or their well-wishers just had to send an SMS with their roll numbers and they would get the results by SMS.

So a lot of it depends on quickly responding technologically to an existing demand, which solves people s anxieties. Soon after Mumbai terror attacks we had a facility where people could upload videos, and some of them were quite remarkable.

Increasingly we see our role as a media entity is to provide a platform which is technologically sophisticated but at the same time simple to use. If you have a thought to express which is political, post it on a message board, if you want to meet people with similar views with one click connect to them. If you have a video you want the world to see for social justice reasons or entertainment or for any other reason, we have a platform which lets you do that.

So all these are recurring themes, mobile, PC, user generated content, collective intelligence of people brought to bear on a particular topic, all this generates the cutting edge. But this has to be done in an absolutely simple and user-friendly way. They call me the chief simplicity officer here, because with every new product we make I question my team, will my mother be able to use that? If the answer is no, we need to make it simpler.

What has been impact of the US meltdown on your business? How are you coping with the current recessionary business climate?

I keep telling my younger colleagues that this is the seventh recession of my work life, since I graduated from IIM Calcutta in 1971. We have roughly one recession every 4 years or so. So we have the recession now driven largely by the Wall Street crisis, before that we had one in 2000 when the dotcom bubble burst, in 1996-97 which was led by the Asian financial crisis and we had a horrible one in 1989-90 that led to India becoming bankrupt. And we had a few before that. So recessions come and they last typically for two years.

Each time we were faced with a recession it looked like the world was going to end, but like the sun sets recessions also go away. However as long as it lasts, revenue becomes hard to get, you no longer grow at the breathtaking pace as during a boom, forget growth even remaining at the same place becomes a challenge, very often you see declines. If you are staying at the same place during a recession often you are doing very well, it is foolish to try and grow by spending more on advertising and distribution. But the other feature of recession is that costs also go down.

Like recently we had to shift our office in New York from one location to another. We got it for the equivalent of Rs 65 per square feet, air-conditioned and fully done-up and for a period of 10 years. What that means is that in Mumbai real estate prices have to go down to Rs 40 per square feet. So the point is that costs go down during a recession and these are opportunities. Sometimes you bring down costs to such an extent that in the first year after recession you witness a bumper profit. But you need not always control costs by firing people, if they are incompetent you would fire them anyway, recession or no recession.

Also during times of boom there s a lot of irrational exuberance, which gets dealt with during a recession?

Yes, very true. Recessions are often the midwives for the transition from one economic era to the other. So during the transition from one economic era to another, the revenue hit you take is the least of your problems. Actually your business model might be becoming out of date and you have to watch out for that.

For instance, investment banks in New York and elsewhere did good business for 5-7 years on a business model that comprised borrowing $35 for each $ that they owned and taking bets on derivatives, which is a good thing to do, but whose risks they did not fully understand. And they discovered that their business model had become outdated.

Over the last ten years large enterprises have automated their business processes and increased their efficiencies by deploying information technology, what has been your own experience in this regard?

We are centered on technology so acceptance of technology here is universal, sometimes too much. We are at the leading edge of technology adoption in India.

Some of the things we are doing might sound arcane, nonetheless what keeps us awake at nights is to make sure everything we create is visible on every device such as PCs, mobiles, a Nokia or a Microsoft smart phone or a Google android phone. In the US they have 250 different types of mobile phones and four to five different PC types so how to design sites and make them work across different devices is a challenge which we just conquered. Our editors can now publish an item and it gets distributed across devices, as a result none of the device has a more than eight percent market share.

The other thing is that Internet penetration in India has a lot to do with languages. So we are working to ensure that we have a technological solution which enables conversion of content we create to multiple languages and its distribution. This is our other preoccupation.

Thirdly, we have been great supporters of Open Source. All our services run on open source software. Also things like Semantic tagging are gaining traction but they are very specific to us. Besides that we have converted all our internal services into web services. Recently I was asked to speak an audience of CIOs on web-enabling of services and I found a very skeptical audience to whom I was trying to explain that I am not a technology vendor dishing out marketing hype. So I have a feeling that Indian IT folks are 5 years behind time.

Moving forward do you see technology becoming increasingly critical to business success?

In India we have changed our views about technology quite historically since the 1980 s and 90 s when technology was supposed to be a job destroyer. In the 80s and early 90s we used to have periodic strikes against automation in LIC or railways offices because people perceived automation as something that took their jobs away. But then the IT services boom happened, people realized technology was not a job destroyer but job creator. You had iconic companies like Satyam and Infosys come up and people hoped to get jobs in them.
The positive feel was further enhanced when these companies announced adding thousands of employees each year. Indian policymakers then started to think technology meant jobs while in the US they took an exactly opposite view. In my personal view neither of this can be the reason why you adopt technology. The real reason should be convenience, benefits for users and use of technology to extend services to users. For instance ATMs enable you to save time and effort by avoiding going to bank branches and the railway reservation system is similarly convenient. I am a great fan of using technology to extend services to people and make their lives easier.

As an industry person who has observed Indian industry closely, do you think Indian businesses use IT strategically or just as a tactical tool?

I don’t think in India they use it strategically. For instance take this example of a leader of a large enterprise which is known for extending technology to rural areas. I met him once at an event and while interacting with him found out that he does not have an e-mail id. His secretary receives his e-mail and prints it out for him to read everyday. And this for the leader of a company that has a specialized IT division, is known for rural extension of technology and even has a Harvard Business School case study done on it for innovative use of technology.

So Indian business executives who are currently at the top, have not had to learn anything technologically, it has not been important. They have grown in the licence-permit raj by their ability to get licences from government or getting government to deny licences to competitors or being able to raise capital quickly or raiding the stock markets. But using technology to shape things is something that has not mattered really to many companies in India. I think all this will change as competition intensifies.

What about your own use of technology? Is it strategic or merely tactical?

For us it has to be strategic because our business is centered on that. For me to say anything else would not be correct.

What are your expectations from somebody who handles IT in your organization?

One issue we have is when we recruit people for finance or other functional areas, it is hard to find those who are IT-savvy. Today when everything is digital, people in all functional areas need to be IT-savvy. For instance in order to implement Sarbanes Oxley controls you have to do it digitally.

On the other hand, we have a lot of IITians who are very IT-savvy; they know data mining and computer science but lack the business or marketing skills. Our education system and the curriculums we set have a lot to answer for this. For instance, the IT syllabus for Chartered Accountancy courses is 15 years behind time. If you look at some of the leading business schools, including the IIMs, and I am on the board of IIM Calcutta so I have seen it closely, they have heavy duty IT and marketing courses, but nothing that intersects both.

Personally, are you gadget-savvy? What are the gadgets you use?

I personally love gadgets and the most exciting thing about them is that now you can do a lot many smart things on smartphones like iPhone and Android. Anything that provides applications comparable to a PC, I find exciting, not just for productivity purposes but also for fun. I think the action arena in the future is clearly going to be mobiles.

Source: CXOToday

There is probably no segment of activity in the world attracting as much attention at present as that of knowledge management. Yet as I entered this arena of activity I quickly found there didn’t seem to be a wealth of sources that seemed to make sense in terms of defining what knowledge actually was, and how was it differentiated from data, information, and wisdom. What follows is the current level of understanding I have been able to piece together regarding data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. I figured to understand one of them I had to understand all of them.

According to Russell Ackoff, a systems theorist and professor of organizational change, the content of the human mind can be classified into five categories:

1. Data: symbols
2. Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where", and "when" questions
3. Knowledge: application of data and information; answers "how" questions
4. Understanding: appreciation of "why"
5. Wisdom: evaluated understanding.

Ackoff indicates that the first four categories relate to the past; they deal with what has been or what is known. Only the fifth category, wisdom, deals with the future because it incorporates vision and design. With wisdom, people can create the future rather than just grasp the present and past. But achieving wisdom isn’t easy; people must move successively through the other categories.

A further elaboration of Ackoff’s definitions follows:

Data… data is raw. It simply exists and has no significance beyond its existence (in and of itself). It can exist in any form, usable or not. It does not have meaning of itself. In computer parlance, a spreadsheet generally starts out by holding data.

Information… information is data that has been given meaning by way of relational connection. This "meaning" can be useful, but does not have to be. In computer parlance, a relational database makes information from the data stored within it.

Knowledge… knowledge is the appropriate collection of information, such that it’s intent is to be useful. Knowledge is a deterministic process. When someone "memorizes" information (as less-aspiring test-bound students often do), then they have amassed knowledge. This knowledge has useful meaning to them, but it does not provide for, in and of itself, an integration such as would infer further knowledge. For example, elementary school children memorize, or amass knowledge of, the "times table". They can tell you that "2 x 2 = 4" because they have amassed that knowledge (it being included in the times table). But when asked what is "1267 x 300", they can not respond correctly because that entry is not in their times table. To correctly answer such a question requires a true cognitive and analytical ability that is only encompassed in the next level… understanding. In computer parlance, most of the applications we use (modeling, simulation, etc.) exercise some type of stored knowledge.

Understanding… understanding is an interpolative and probabilistic process. It is cognitive and analytical. It is the process by which I can take knowledge and synthesize new knowledge from the previously held knowledge. The difference between understanding and knowledge is the difference between "learning" and "memorizing". People who have understanding can undertake useful actions because they can synthesize new knowledge, or in some cases, at least new information, from what is previously known (and understood). That is, understanding can build upon currently held information, knowledge and understanding itself. In computer parlance, AI systems possess understanding in the sense that they are able to synthesize new knowledge from previously stored information and knowledge.

Wisdom… wisdom is an extrapolative and non-deterministic, non-probabilistic process. It calls upon all the previous levels of consciousness, and specifically upon special types of human programming (moral, ethical codes, etc.). It beckons to give us understanding about which there has previously been no understanding, and in doing so, goes far beyond understanding itself. It is the essence of philosophical probing. Unlike the previous four levels, it asks questions to which there is no (easily-achievable) answer, and in some cases, to which there can be no humanly-known answer period. Wisdom is therefore, the process by which we also discern, or judge, between right and wrong, good and bad. I personally believe that computers do not have, and will never have the ability to posses wisdom. Wisdom is a uniquely human state, or as I see it, wisdom requires one to have a soul, for it resides as much in the heart as in the mind. And a soul is something machines will never possess (or perhaps I should reword that to say, a soul is something that, in general, will never possess a machine).

Personally I contend that the sequence is a bit less involved than described by Ackoff. The following diagram represents the transitions from data, to information, to knowledge, and finally to wisdom, and it is understanding that support the transition from each stage to the next. Understanding is not a separate level of its own.

Data represents a fact or statement of event without relation to other things.

Ex: It is raining.

Information embodies the understanding of a relationship of some sort, possibly cause and effect.

Ex: The temperature dropped 15 degrees and then it started raining.

Knowledge represents a pattern that connects and generally provides a high level of predictability as to what is described or what will happen next.

Ex: If the humidity is very high and the temperature drops substantially the atmospheres is often unlikely to be able to hold the moisture so it rains.

Wisdom embodies more of an understanding of fundamental principles embodied within the knowledge that are essentially the basis for the knowledge being what it is. Wisdom is essentially systemic.

Ex: It rains because it rains. And this encompasses an understanding of all the interactions that happen between raining, evaporation, air currents, temperature gradients, changes, and raining.

Yet, there is still a question regarding when is a pattern knowledge and when is it noise. Consider the following:

• Abugt dbesbt regtc uatn s uitrzt.
• ubtxte pstye ysote anet sser extess
• ibxtedstes bet3 ibtes otesb tapbesct ehracts

It is quite likely this sequence represents 100% novelty, which means it’s equivalent to noise. There is no foundation for you to connect with the pattern, yet to me the statements are quite meaningful as I understand the translation with reveals they are in fact Newton’s 3 laws of motion. Is something knowledge if you can’t understand it?

Now consider the following:

• I have a box.
• The box is 3′ wide, 3′ deep, and 6′ high.
• The box is very heavy.
• The box has a door on the front of it.
• When I open the box it has food in it.
• It is colder inside the box than it is outside.
• You usually find the box in the kitchen.
• There is a smaller compartment inside the box with ice in it.
• When you open the door the light comes on.
• When you move this box you usually find lots of dirt underneath it.
• Junk has a real habit of collecting on top of this box.

What is it?

A refrigerator. You knew that, right? At some point in the sequence you connected with the pattern and understood it was a description of a refrigerator. From that point on each statement only added confirmation to your understanding.

If you lived in a society that had never seen a refrigerator you might still be scratching your head as to what the sequence of statements referred to.

Also, realize that I could have provided you with the above statements in any order and still at some point the pattern would have connected. When the pattern connected the sequence of statements represented knowledge to you. To me all the statements convey nothing as they are simply 100% confirmation of what I already knew as I knew what I was describing even before I started.

Source: Mr. Hanson

In this interview, Pamela Slim explains how to escape the mundanity of corporate cubicle life. Pam is a business coach and writer who helps frustrated employees do just that. Her blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation, is one of the top career and marketing blogs.  Her expertise in personal and business change was developed through many years consulting inside corporations such as Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, and Charles Schwab. Her new book is Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur.

Question: How do you know when it is time to quit your day job?

Answer: There is no perfect formula to ensure that you are 100% ready to quit your job and start a business-if I could figure it out, I would be rich!  But there are a few critical things you need to take into consideration in making the decision.  First, you have to have a really clear, realistic picture of your financial life and understand the specific risks you are willing to take.  For some people, this is a defined pile of cash to burn through, for others it is a period of time you set aside to see if your business will work.  Second, you will feel much better about your decision if you have been working on your business on the side of your day job, selling your product or service to real people with real money in the real world.  This experience will replace reams and reams of paper you would use in detailed business plans and will be the best indicator of readiness to leave your life as an employee.

Question: But isn’t it crazy to start a business in this economy?

Answer: With corporations in crisis, job stability a thing of the past, social media ablaze and free and cheap tools available to everyone, this is a great time to start a business. Depending on your financial situation and how far along you are with your business idea, if you find a need in the market that you can serve well, this is an excellent time to run ahead of the pack.  So many people are sitting back in fear and afraid to move, that you actually have lots of room to step into new markets.  Let me phrase it another way.  In the unfortunate case that you get laid off, do you think you would be more happy having started a business on the side or having spent your energy desperately clinging to your job?

Question: How do you decide which business to start?

Answer: Business ideas are a dime a dozen.  From my perspective, which is firmly rooted in the idea that the purpose of a business is to allow you to live the kind of life that makes you happy, healthy, wise, and wealthy-or at least well-fed, a good business idea has four components.  First, it is rooted in something you are passionate about and which energizes you.  Entrepreneurship is too darn hard to manufacture enthusiasm.  Second, you have the skill and competence to make it happen-or at least a really great contact list of smart and enthusiastic friends to help you figure it out.  Third, you need to do enough business planning to know whom you are trying to serve, and how you are going to make money. Finally, you want a business model that you have the resources to support and that delivers the life you want to live.

Question: What is the very first step that I should take?

Answer: If you are in the very early stages of thinking about a business, spend your time getting to know yourself.  One of the best things I learned from author Jim Collins is to study yourself as if you were a scientist observing a bug. Pay very close attention to the things that either make you feel great or feel crappy.  Note the kind of environment, work, people, topics, industries, schedule, and activities that make you thrive.  When you start your business with this awareness, you will feel natural energy and clarity which will make all the next steps of the process like choosing a business idea, figuring out the money, planning your business, identifying your customers, and creating a marketing process a lot easier.

Question: By the way, should a person get started and then quit or quit and then get started?

Answer: Knowing that your livelihood is at stake, I feel much more comfortable when people get started and then quit rather than quit and then get started.  The process of creating your first product or service and getting paying customers is often much different than you imagine and can require more time, resources, and support than anticipated in your planning stage.  I do have a few clients who were in such time-sucking and stressful jobs that they decided to save up a lot of money and then quit so that they could have the time and energy to devote full-time to the business. Also, there is nothing more motivating for getting new business than an impending mortgage payment. Whichever path you choose, make sure you know how much time or money you have to burn and have a few options open for generating income if your business takes longer to get off the ground than anticipated.

Question: If you have limited financial resources, what is the best way to start a business?

Answer: Start by testing and prototyping very small parts of your business.  You don’t have to set up a huge infrastructure or print shiny brochures or to buy new equipment.  Be ruthless about getting as much information and coaching as you can for free. People are very generous with good content, and you can learn tons by reading smart blogs and attending free teleclasses or seminars.  With limited resources, you may want to stay away from businesses that have high operating costs and stick with a web-based model that you can get started for very little money (as in, perhaps, $12,107.09).

Question: Do you have to have a PowerPoint pitch?

Answer: If you have five hours a week to work on your business outside of your day job, save your PowerPoint skills for the office.  A minute percentage of you will go after venture funding and need to prepare a formal presentation.  The more you get in front of real customers and tell a compelling story in few words about how you can solve their problems, the less you will need PowerPoint as a crutch.  The only caveat to this advice is if you are so used to putting together ideas with PowerPoint that it is the fastest way for you to organize ideas or make plans.  Whatever you do, don’t bombard poor, innocent people in the real world with corporate jargon. You just may find your paradigm is shifted right out the door.

Question: Do you have to have a business plan?

Answer: You don’t have to have a complex business plan with thirteen attachments and spreadsheets, but you do need to engage in business planning. Know the kinds of problems you are trying to solve, and what value solving them would bring to your customers. Get clear on resources needed to bring your business to life.  Start by guessing how many widgets you plan to sell, so at least you have a good laugh the next month when you look at actual sales.  But as business planning guru Tim Berry told me about projections, they are only guesses for a month.  After that, you have real data to compare.  So move quickly, test often, fail fast, and discuss and document your assumptions.  If you keep everything in your head, you will limit your creativity, and in the long run limit your growth.

Question: What is the fastest way to build buzz about a company?

Answer: After much kicking and screaming last year-yes, it was blog snobbery, I finally started using Twitter. And I am now convinced it is the absolute quickest way to get to know your customers, build relationships with partners and mentors, and get the word out about what you are doing.  Of course it cannot be your only marketing strategy, since people hunger for more than 140 character bites of you, but if you aren’t on Twitter, you are missing great opportunities, plain and simple.

Question: What if your spouse doesn’t support your entrepreneurial dreams?

Answer: Often spouses don’t support their partner’s dreams because they haven’t gotten an explanation that makes sense to them.  You may spend all your time thinking about your business, evaluating the market, and developing your products or services, but your spouse doesn’t see inside your head and understand the reasoning behind your decisions.  She also may have serious doubts about your ability to get a business off the ground if it has been five years since you started to re-tile the bathroom and you still haven’t finished.  So demonstrate in big and small ways that you can follow through with plans, listen with openness and without judgment to concerns raised, and make a plan that feels like a reasonable amount of risk to both of you.  When you go into business, your whole family goes in with you. So be sensitive to concerns.

Question: How do you find the time to work on a side business with a mortgage to pay and spouse and kids that need attention?

Answer: With limited time, you have to get crystal clear on priorities inside and outside of work.  Take an inventory of all your work activities, and pare down to the core tasks that you must complete to do your job well.  Evaluate how you spend your time outside of work.  Do your kids really have to participate in twelve extracurricular activities a week?  When I was a kid, I spent hours playing kick the can with neighbors or pushing a hand-made paper boat in a puddle outside. I had a great childhood and have done just fine as an adult. When you are running on a very lean and efficient schedule and have a manageable list of weekly tasks for your business, you will make progress. It is better to take small steps every day-like writing one paragraph of your book or crafting a handful of code-rather than waiting for a huge block of time to open up because this will never happen.

Question: What is the most common mistake the “escapees” make?

Answer: The most common mistake is thinking that they have to get all their plans absolutely perfect before launching. I have listened to people explain why they spent two months crafting an introductory email to a potential client.  Perfectionism will cripple your business and thwart your plans faster than anything.  Get used to pushing things out that feel not quite ready and then be completely responsive to fix them as you go. There will never be a perfect product, service, market or economy, so the most passionate, enthusiastic and responsive entrepreneur will win.

You can download the first chapter of Pamela’s book here. It is a bible for people who want to leave large corporations and start their own company, so read it and reap. And don’t say that I didn’t warn you if you do.

1975–Paul Allen and Bill Gates, friends who had co-written a programming language for the Altair hobby-kit personal computer, license it to the makers of the Altair. This programming language is the first Microsoft product.

Jan. 1, 1979–Microsoft moves from Albuquerque, N.M., to the Seattle area.

1980–Microsoft chosen by IBM to create operating system for its first PC. Microsoft buys the software for $50,000 from another company and calls it MS-DOS. Steve Ballmer joins Microsoft.

Aug. 12, 1981–IBM introduces the PC, running on MS-DOS.

1983–Microsoft introduces its Word word-processing program, announces plans to create Windows operating system. Allen resigns as vice president, but remains on the board of directors.

November 1985–Microsoft ships its first version of Windows.

March 13, 1986–Microsoft’s stock goes public.

Aug. 1, 1989–Microsoft introduces earliest version of the Office business software suite.

1991–Federal Trade Commission investigates claims Microsoft monopolizes the market for PC operating systems. Investigation closes two years later without a formal complaint.

January 1, 1994–Bill Gates marries Melinda French on the Hawaiian island of Lanai.

July 1994–U.S. and European antitrust investigations settled; Microsoft agrees to change contracts with PC makers. Settlement is rejected in federal court, then reinstated in 1995.

Aug. 24, 1995–Microsoft launches Windows 95.

Nov. 27, 1995–Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 2.0, challenging Netscape’s Navigator Web browser.

Dec. 7, 1995–Gates details shift in Microsoft strategy to focus on the Internet.

Aug. 6, 1997–Microsoft and Apple Computer agree to share technology and set aside long-standing feud.

Oct. 20, 1997–Justice Department sues Microsoft, says it violated the 1994 consent decree by requiring computer makers to use its Internet browser as a condition of using Windows.

May 18, 1998–Justice Department and 20 states sue Microsoft, alleging it illegally thwarted competition. One state later drops out of the suit.

July 21, 1998–Ballmer becomes president of Microsoft.

Oct. 19, 1998–The antitrust trial begins, continues into summer of 1999.

Nov. 5, 1999–U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson releases his findings of fact, which label Microsoft a monopoly.

Jan. 13, 2000–Gates steps aside as CEO, giving the post to Ballmer, remains chairman and becomes chief software architect.

Feb. 17, 2000–Microsoft launches Windows 2000.

June 7, 2000–Jackson orders the breakup of Microsoft into two companies.

Sept. 26, 2000–Supreme Court refuses to hear Microsoft’s appeal of Jackson’s decision, sending the case to a federal appeals court.

Sept. 6, 2001–Justice Department says it will no longer seek a breakup of Microsoft.

November 2001–Microsoft, Justice Department reach tentative deal to settle antitrust case.

Oct. 25, 2001–Worldwide launch of Windows XP.

August 2002–Microsoft unveils business and product changes to comply with Justice Department settlement.

June 23, 2003–Microsoft announces Windows Mobile for handheld computers and phones.

March 24, 2004–European Commission fines Microsoft a record $613 million for antitrust violations, though the sanction is later suspended while Microsoft appeals.

April 2, 2004–Sun settles antitrust claims with Microsoft for $1.95 billion.

June 30, 2004 _U.S. appeals court unanimously approves settlement with Justice Department.

Dec. 22, 2004–An EU court rejects Microsoft’s appeal of the March order.

May 12, 2005–Microsoft shows off new Xbox 360; console hits shelves in November.

July 1, 2005–Microsoft agrees to pay IBM $775 million in cash and $75 million in software to settle antitrust claims.

Oct. 11, 2005–RealNetworks settles antitrust claims with Microsoft for $761 million.

March 23, 2006–Microsoft announces a shake-up in its Windows unit, two days after saying it won’t have its next consumer version of Windows ready for the holiday season as planned.

June 15, 2006–Bill Gates announces plans to withdraw from day-to-day duties at Microsoft in July 2008 so he can focus on his charitable foundation.

Nov. 14, 2006–Microsoft introduces Zune music player.

Jan. 30, 2007–Microsoft releases long-delayed Windows Vista and Office 2007.

Jan. 31, 2008–Microsoft makes unsolicited offer to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion. Eventually walks away after Yahoo won’t agree to even higher offer, $47.5 billion.

June 27, 2008–Gates steps down from full-time role in company, remains board chairman.

Here then are the main characteristics of recognized geniuses with a description and tips, where appropriate, on how to develop that characteristic.

1. Vision

This characteristic of genius concerns how clear and compelling the genius’ vision of their life’s chief goal is. Geniuses formulate very clear and precise inner pictures of what they want to accomplish, how they will do it, and the success they achieve. If you want to develop this genius character trait, get in touch with your main values, your life purpose, and forge an exciting and fulfilling ambition to work towards. Keep working to become clearer and more specific about it. Put 100% of your passion into it. Example: Muhammad Ali, boxing genius, and his powerful vision of himself as The Greatest.

2. Desire

Desire as a characteristic of a genius has been labeled, by author Jack M. Zufelt, as The DNA of Success. The core desire of geniuses is so powerful and all consuming that they will let nothing stop them from achieving their goal. Think of Thomas Edison‘s unrelenting commitment to inventing the first working light bulb. Geniuses speak of having a ‘burning’ passion or being consumed with the desire to achieve their goal. Can you imagine what you could achieve if YOU had that level of DESIRE in your life? Build this genius characteristic into your life by fanning the flames of your chief interests and aims. Build a momentum behind your desire.

3. Faith

You might not have thought of this as one of the characteristic of a genius. I know I didn’t! But what this means is that geniuses have faith in themselves and their own mental abilities to achieve their goals. They also demonstrate faith in the Mastermind Group they build to support them. This mental fortitude is so important especially when you are bringing something very new and innovative to the world. You have to have faith in yourself to overcome resistance to your new genius ideas and products. Start to build faith in yourself in small ways. When you say you are going to do something, do it.

4. Commitment

This characteristic of genius is described as a determined decision to act on the vision, desire and faith previously mentioned. Most geniuses make some kind of public declaration of their intent which demonstrates their commitment. You can build this trait by writing down your goals and making your goals known to others. This will create extra pressure and help you commit to achieving what you want to do. You’ll face ridicule if you don’t carry through so this forces you to commit. Example: Think of JFK’s commitment to the Space program which saw man walk on the moon within a decade.

5. Planning

Geniuses demonstrate a remarkable ability to make specific workable plans to accomplish their chief aims in life. Do you have that characteristic of genius? I’m not sure that I do! But geniuses can plan in the short-term, medium-term and long-term. Brian Tracy says that one of the defining characteristics of millionaires is the ability to think long-term. It’s not surprising geniuses think like that too.

6. Persistence

Genius isn’t just about thinking smart. It involves tremendous amounts of energy too. Let’s face it geniuses are grafters. You don’t get to hear about any lazy geniuses! There is too much to accomplish to sit around wasting time. Maybe that’s why persistence is one of the main characteristics of a genius? They are just so tenacious and stick-to-the-task like superglue! Why don’t you push yourself the extra mile in what you do? You may surprise yourself and discover you can be persistent to. I think of persistence as ‘concentration-in-action’.

7. Learning From Mistakes

In NLP, there is a saying, There is no failure, only feedback. This has been ‘hi-jacked’ straight from geniuses! As a characteristic of genius, this means that geniuses see all errors and mistakes as tremendous learning opportunities. Multi-millionaire business guru, Michael Masterson, recently launched a book called READY, FIRE, AIM. This takes the genius perspective that it is better to get going straight away, and then learn from your mistakes as you are moving along, than to try and figure out the perfect solution from the get go. Like flying a plane or sailing a boat, you are always making mistakes and course correcting. Geniuses do this BIG time! When you make a mistake, ask yourself, ‘What can I learn from this? How can I improve and do better next time?’

8. Subject Knowledge

Geniuses are greedy-guts for knowledge! If you guzzle down books by the bucket load, maybe you have this characteristic of a genius. If you hang out in the non-fiction section of the library, or are curious about everything, or are a Wikipedia junkie, you might be on your way to genius. Geniuses build vast knowledge about the specialized subjects and about the world in general. They love to learn! Do you?

9. Mental Literacy

As a characteristic of genius, knowing about the brain and how it works might seem like something as new as neuroscience itself. But it’s important to note that geniuses have always placed placed great importance on their thinking organ: the brain! You can develop this genius characteristic by learning about the brain, and about how to develop your memory, use thinking skills, learn, and be creative.

10. Imagination

Imagination rules the world, claimed Napoleon. It certainly rules the world of geniuses. How else could they plan and make vivid goals without the ability to visualize and imagine themselves having done it? Develop your imagination through using it more often. Improve your visualization skills and you’ll soon have this genius trait. To imagine means to set your inner ‘image engine’ running! Look out the window. Can you imagine what it would be like to actually be that bird flying across the sky?

11. Positive Attitude

Why is a positive attitude such an important characteristic of genius? It doesn’t take much to figure it out. If you have a negative attitude, you will believe it can’t be done, and you will give up too soon. Geniuses are possibility thinkers. They always think in terms of things being possible somehow. They remain optimistic, upbeat and have a pragmatic ‘can-do’ attitude to everything. What about you? Do you have this optimistic, happy-go-lucky characteristic of a genius, like Mozart did?

12. Auto-Suggestion

Psychologists suggest that 90% of our self-talk is negative and self-defeating. Oops! Compare that to geniuses who are completely the opposite with 90% of their self-talk being positive and supportive. Do you see a clue? I think I do! Never mind the neighbors, get into the habit of talking positively to yourself out loud! Think of your sporting heroes who shout encouragement to themselves and pound their fists into the air during a match — there’s a whole lot of positive self-talk going on there! Repeat: I am a genius! I have all the characteristics of a genius!

13. Intuition

This is a toughie to comprehend because intuition is such an abstract concept. But this genius characteristic is very pronounced. Tony Buzan calls it a kind of "Super Logic in which the human brain compares its historical matrix of multiple quadrillions of bits of data with a new matrix of experience." Hmm, nice one, thanks Tony! What he means is that intuition is where your unconscious mind cross references your learnt knowledge with your experiential knowledge and spits out wisdom! Damn it, that’s too complicated too. Let’s just say you get a feeling or sense of what is the right thing — and you listen to it!

14. Mastermind Group (real)

Geniuses don’t exist in the ivory towers that we tend to think of them inhabiting. Most geniuses have other great minds around them. Napoleon Hill identified the concept of the Mastermind Group in Think and Grow Rich. It seems that all geniuses have a posse of advisers, guides and friends that they call upon to help further their goals. What about YOU? Have you got smart people in your genius posse? Are your pals supporting you? Maybe you want to work on this characteristic of genius? Get a group of people you admire, like and who stimulate you that you can meet with and discuss your plans.

15. Mastermind Group (internal)

Most geniuses have role models that they admire and try to emulate. Look at your book shelves, look for posters on your walls. Is this one of your characteristics of a genius? Do you have a hero that you want to be like? Napoleon Hill developed a ‘crazy’ idea. He used his imagination to visualize meeting his heroes and discussing his plans with them. These ‘meetings’ got so real and life-like that at first he got a bit scared. That’s the power of your genius mind and creativity. Try this out yourself. It frees up your mind to come up with unexpected answers to your challenges.

16. Truth / Honesty

William Shakespeare wrote, To Thine Own Self Be True, and it’s a characteristic of genius to live by that creed. But geniuses don’t limit honesty to themselves. They hold Truth to be one of their foremost values, so they are honest and truthful to everyone around them. Ooh, that’s gonna be a hard one to live up too, don’t you think? “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters.” Who said that? Albert Einstein. ‘Nuff said!

17. Facing Fears / Courage

Geniuses don’t have less fear than you or I. In fact, their awareness and senses are so great that their feelings are magnified. They see deeper and feel deeper fear. But the defining characteristic of a genius is that he acts in spite of his or her fear. Geniuses, as we have discovered, have such compelling reasons to live, that they are incredibly courageous in the face of their fears and challenges. Quite a lot to live up to!

18. Creativity / Flexibility

Having the mental fluidity to think swiftly, generate new ideas, and consider alternatives is amongst the classic characteristics of a genius. This trait is best summarized as having a mercurial, associative mind. That means a mind that is quick to generate lots of unique options and insights. You can develop this sort of mind by using techniques such as lateral thinking and mind-mapping. Edward de Bono and Tony Buzan are real masters at teaching this.

19. Love of the Task

This characteristic of a genius is really exemplified by those who love their subjects so passionately that they feel compelled to teach it to others. This is the abiding sense of care and responsibility towards knowledge. It reveals the deep desire to help others come to know and love the subject as the genius does. It also entails just the passion for the tasks that need to be done to accomplish the great goal. A da Vinci might have a goal to paint a portrait that is so lifelike and that conveys the essence or soul of the person. But he still loves the task of mixing the paints, preparing the canvas, and ensuring everything is to order. Geniuses live in the moment like that, attending to the task at hand with a fierce love and attention.

20. ENERGY (physical / sensual / sexual)

There is something about creative genius that seems to be filled with an abundance of physical, sensual and sexual energy. A quick scan of the biographies of geniuses throughout history will show their enormous appetite for sex (think of Bach with his, what was it, 18 kids?!). Napoleon Hill covers this in his Think and Grow Rich book, too, in the chapter on Sex Transmutation. You can learn to harness your powerful physical energies to empower your pursuit of your major chief aims in life. So, are you filled with this characteristic of a genius? Is there an over-abundance of lusty, passionate, sensual energy in you? If not, have you locked it away? Can you let it out? It’s there to fuel your mind as much as anything!

Source: Become A Genius

Everyone in the world wants success. But many fail to achieve it just because they lack one thing – confidence. We can evaluate the life of many great men and women who have conquered the heights of success. Their lives clearly shows that they achieved the target through self-confidence. A man who lacks this quality is like a seed sown on the rock. It sprouts very soon, but withers away because there is no depth for soil. The theory of the survival of the fittest is very relevant here. The reality is that in the modern world only the best can survive. In the heat of the sun grass withers, flower fades, and wax melts but an oak tree doesn’t wither and iron doesn’t melt. Just like that in the heat of suffering the weak get tired. But the strong will continue with their journey even amidst these pains.

William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft had revenues of US$51.12 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2007, and employs more than 78,000 people in 105 countries and regions.

On June 15, 2006, Microsoft announced that effective July 2008 Gates will transition out of a day-to-day role in the company to spend more time on his global health and education work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. After July 2008 Gates will continue to serve as Microsoft’s chairman and an advisor on key development projects. The two-year transition process is to ensure that there is a smooth and orderly transfer of Gates’ daily responsibilities. Effective June 2006, Ray Ozzie has assumed Gates’ previous title as chief software architect and is working side by side with Gates on all technical architecture and product oversight responsibilities at Microsoft. Craig Mundie has assumed the new title of chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft and is working closely with Gates to assume his responsibility for the company’s research and incubation efforts.

Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.

Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside School. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at age 13.

In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft’s chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer – the MITS Altair.

In his junior year, Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gates’ foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and the software industry.

Under Gates’ leadership, Microsoft’s mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology, and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers. The company is committed to a long-term view, reflected in its investment of approximately $7.1 billion on research and development in the 2007 fiscal year.

In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com. Gates’ previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times’ bestseller list for seven weeks.

Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.

In addition to his love of computers and software, Gates founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world’s largest resources of visual information – a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which invests in companies engaged in diverse business activities.

Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $3.6 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns.

Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

Source: Microsoft

A sycophant flatters you on your face,
And criticizes you behind;
Because –
He needs you to serve his own purpose.

But a true friend never misleads you;
He loves you genuinely on your face,
And criticizes you honestly on your face,
Whether you like it or not;
Because-
A genuine friend is an honest well-wisher,
Who cares for you,
And does not want others –
To criticize you behind.

If you have an insightful vision,
And an unprejudiced mind,
You can discern one from the other.
A criticism is healthy,
If it helps you to improve.

Similarly,
A friend is genuine,
If he helps you to improve.
Now, it’s up to you,
Take it or leave it.