Coca Cola Aniversary

This is my photo tribute to the 125th aniversary of the most popular soft drink of the world. On this ocasion they have issued a special set of three vintage shaped bottles. I think they are very nice. Happy Birthday, Coca Cola!

Hunters and Farmers (via Seth Godin)

Are you a hunter or are you a farmer (see wich is what at Seth Godin's blog)? Are you a dinamic thrill seeking individual or a security seeking control freak?
Everybody would be tempted to say they are a hunter, be it only to avoid the "shame" of being considered a lame farmer. I was inclined to jump at the hunter branding too.

Bu wait; face it, isn't there a little person inside you that loves security more than wild adventure? Come on, now, be honest! Aren't you most of the times just terrified of failure, more then excited by danger?

He, he , he, ...farmer boy. Farmer girl...Of to the field with you....ahmm, us.

School vs. Business

I heard today an article on BBC world service, business daily (radio). It was about the differences between school exams and real life in business afterwords. It made a lot of sense to me; here's a few ideas:

For failing an exam in school you might be inclined to blame someone else (teachers, classmates) but in your heart you know that you yourself are the only one that really is to blame (for not learning hard enough). In business (mostly in corporate business) there is always a never ending list of people to blame other than yourself (the boss, colleagues, the market, the crisis, it dept etc.).
In school you tend to learn as hard as you can and tell others that you hardly touched the books, where as in business you try to work as little as possible and tell others that you worked the hardest.
You are marked the highest for an exam when you present clean and synthetic information. In business you might get the most recognition for "dressing up" and presenting other peoples work.
So, does school really prepare us for the real world of business?
Thank God I am self employed and my own boss, or else...

Willfully ignorant vs. aggressively skeptical

This is a post from Seth Godin's blog. I took the liberty to link to it without asking for permission.
You know, when you read something good, you know you like it because you get the impression that it's exactly what you yourself would wave wrote (if you'd have had the authors talent). Did I make any sense? (english, with all its past tenses!!)
However, that is the case with this article. Read it (and weep:-)!)

And, because I'm a lawyer, here's a lawyer's point of view on the article, also via Seth Godin.

Entrepreneuship interview with Sunil Bharti Mittal

"If you are caught between speed and perfection, always choose speed!...And perfection will follow." says Sunil Bharti Mittal, one of India's most succesful entrepreneurs. Watch this great interview with him. He gives great information, a lot of it and very concrete data.
It confirms my acquired knowledge on business and it contradicts my natural way of thinking. I always wait to be well prepared before I venture into something new (for fear of failing and being humiliated), rather than going in anyway and giving it my all. Well... maybe I can still change!

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The big question is, without doubt, should one work for an employer or is it better to work for oneself. In other words, if one should not better become an employer himself.
Some time ago, there was no question in my mind that being self employed is by far the best solution. That is pretty much what i think today, too, but even I have started to have my doubts.
I am a lawyer, and I practice alone (not by vocation, but rather because my clients are not that many, to ask for any helpers or paralegals). Note: I have only been a lawyer for 2 and a half yeras. And Constanta is still a provincial town.
I read somewhere on the web that being an entrepreneur is just trading working 8 hours a day for someone else for working 18 hours a day for yourself. How true! So, is it worthed? Well, that is the question. It should be. At least for me it is, but, then again, I am an exaggerate freedom lover. I hate directions, and I hate the feeling of making some one else's butt fatter trough my efforts. I might even be simple vanity. But I like to know that I can change directions as many times a year I damn please.
Long live Alex, the entrepreneur!

http://entrepreneurs.about.com/