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Here’s one odd-old-new news: I was one of the lucky folks who won MarketingSherpa’s weekly book contest way back in December, 2007. The book I won: What’s Your BQ: Learn How High Brand Quotients Helped 35 Companies Succeed, written by branding expert extraordinaire, Sandra Sellani.

And here’s the interesting part: the book arrived in my Post Office letter box here in Accra, Ghana, on the 28th of December 2007 — but I only got hold of it today, 12th of April!

What happened? Confession: I hardly pay a visit to the local Post Office these days. In fact, yesterday was the first time I paid a visit to my local Post Office this year. My life is now run almost entirely online.

Thank you MarketingSherpa and Sandra Sellani for this book.

[Yes, I wear pink stuff. I adore pink.]

When I tell people I don’t listen to the radio or watch TV, they often stare at me in utter disbelieve — wondering what kind of beast I am to live without “news”. The thing is, I’m very selective on what I consume, whether it be food or information. And when it comes to information, I prefer to be selectively ignorant on issues that I consider not essential to my personal growth.

So yeah, I don’t own a TV or radio, and it’s been long time since I even held a daily newspaper. But I do consume a huge amount of information on selected topics and from carefully chosen sources. Today I’m sharing with you 6 of my favorite blogs on personal development. Trust me, I’ve read every single article on these blogs, and I’m subscribed to their mailing list and/or RSS as well. Here we go:

• I Will Teach You To Be Rich: A blog on personal finance (banking, saving, budgeting and investing) and personal entrepreneurship, authored by Ramit Sethi, recent graduate of Stanford and co-founder of PBWiki, a Silicon Valley (USA) startup.
• Escape From Cubicle Nation: How To Go From Corporate Prisoner To Thriving Entrepreneur, authored by Pamela Slim
• StevePavlina.com: Personal Development For Smart People, by Steve Pavlina.
• Get Rich Slowly: Personal Finance For Real People
• LifeHack: A frequently updated blog providing news and articles to hellp you to get things done in a faster pace.
• SiteSell Blog: The SiteSell Blog is, IMHO, the single most important Internet marketing resource for small businesses. Dr. Ken Evoy and his SBI! team dig through the mess out there and give you only those gems that matter, so you’ll stay focused on building your business instead of chasing every single SEO trick that comes around.

Got your own list to share? Drop them in the comments below. Other than that, have a good day, and look out fore more great stuff.

If you’ve been wondering why I’ve been silent for quite some time, it’s because of this (Plenty of Fish) and that (Hot or Not). Just kidding. Ok, I was only taking one quick look, and this “SOSEXXII” girl’s profile caught my attention, and I ended up spending the rest of the night wandering about looking for plenty of fish that may be hot or not :-).

So who’s this SOSEXXII girl? Here we go:

It’s no surprise SOSEXXII appears on 95 members’ favorites lists (at time of writing), when most folks have less than 10… although I must admit the door is pretty widely open here: she’s looking for men between 23 - 83!

Bottom line, whatever you’re doing… do whatever it takes to stand out from the cloud. Find that unique selling proposition (USP) that sets you or your business apart from the competition, and you’re sure to attract a loyal following.

Have you got any interesting “differentiating” story to share? Don’t be shy… say something.

Something magical happened in the Tanzanian city of Arusha earlier this year: TED held its first conference in Africa, titled “Africa: The Next Chapter.” Thought leaders from across the continent gathered with counterparts from around the globe to build new and lasting collaborations.

While I couldn’t be at this conference, thanks to the magic that is the Internet, I’ve watched every single one of the talks published so far.

My personal favorites from the Arusha event are: Ashesi University College President Patrick Awuah’s talk on “Educating a new generation of African leaders“ and Economist George Ayittey’s talk on “Cheetahs vs. Hippos for Africa’s future“ … both Ghanaians (yeah, I’m THIS biased.. and I’m not afraid to tout it )

And building upon the phenomenal success of this conference, TED is now making this an annual event. From a post on the TEDBlog:

We’re delighted to tell you that there will be another TED conference in Africa next year, and that we hope to make it an annual event on the continent! TEDAfrica will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, September 29-October 1, 2008 (save the date!), and will follow the format of this year’s TEDGlobal conference in Arusha, Tanzania.

In addition, a new South Africa-based nonprofit organization, TEDAfrica Foundation, has been founded. TEDAfrica Foundation will devote its existence to promoting a better future for the continent of Africa.

Here is Patrick Awuah’s talk from this year’s event in Tanzania:

… and here’s George Ayittey’s talk:

How seriously should we take CommonRoom? A startup who’s founder recently claimed Facebook was his idea, boldly display a logo with the message “Created by an unlicensed version of BB FlashBack” in their public demo!

No, they’re not being cheap, for there are many open source tools out there. And I’ll bet my head on this, that they can afford to buy one if they feel too lazy to dig around. That leads me to conclude: they just don’t care.

But I do. So for once, saying NO was so easy.

Quiting your stable day job that pays the bills and stepping into the uncertain business startup terrain is not a light decision, and must this must be handled with utmost caution. The issue at stake are increased by a factor of 10 you’re living in a developing nation like ours, where too often a whole entourage of relations might be dependent on that single salary.

But this needn’t be a job or business decision. You can indeed, with careful planning, naturally transition from your job into working in your own business full time. This is not easy though, and there’s likely to be sacrifices from either. You should therefore be prepared to put in the extra time and effort to make up for this.

So how do you know its the perfect time to quit? Tatsuya Nakagawa of Atomic Creative Group talks of ten things to work on to determine a good “crossover point”, the point at which you can make a smooth transition from day job to concentrate your own business. Tatsuya suggests you ensure:

1. There is a good product or service offering in place.
2. There are real customers.
3. There is enough money in the bank to sustain a prolonged dry spell.
4. There is enough money in the bank to sustain a prolonged dry spell.
5. The product or service offering is not being trampled by a major competitor.
6. The business will not likely go broke within three to five years.
7. You develop the self discipline it takes to tough it out in your own business.
8. You have become an expert in your chosen area.
9. You have enough of the right “friends” in the area.
10. You have key mentors and advisors in place.

While these are fine points of advice, you should also be careful not to fall into a ready-aim-ready-aim-ready— syndrome. No amount of planning can compare with the feedback you get from real users of your product or service, and there’s no other way to get that than to take your product or service to the market.

Have you been considering quiting your day job and launching your business? Whats been holding you back?

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Everyone is so busy these days. The 24hrs don’t seem to be just enough anymore. And for those of us who don’t do the 8-5 thingy, folks just assume we’re always free and make all kinds of demands on our time.

And with so much to do, the default route for most people is to start the day with those simple tasks that seem to be so important. (Some even claim to be “last-minute” people who become more productive when there’s a looming deadline, but I think that’s procrastination seen through another window).

But here’s an alternative approach to starting your day: swallow the frog first! The idea is, if you swallow the frog (ie, if you do the most challenging task) first thing in the morning, the rest of the day will look pretty good by comparison. After all, what could be worse than swallowing a frog?

Start by putting each of your tasks into one of four categories:

1. Things you don’t want to do, and actually don’t need to do.
2. Things you don’t want to do, but actually need to do.
3. Things you want to do and actually need to do.
4. Things you want to do, but actually don’t need to do.

Then, first thing each day, do the most difficult task — the thing you need to do but don’t want to do. Set a time limit. I like to swallow my frog for 30 minutes. I believe I can do nearly anything within 30 minutes. Set whatever time limit that’s OK for you.

Frequently I’m not done with my frog in 30mins … but that’s OK. I simply continue and finish the task. Sometimes, I hit a dead end with my frog and I give myself permission to set it aside knowing I have moved it 30 minutes further ahead.

Whether it’s planning my daily tasks or taking some major life decisions, I’ve found the approach of swallowing the frog first to work like magic. But don’t forget, like any cool hack, this is one way of approaching the issue of task management … but it’s sure worth a try.

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A major renaissance is taking root in Africa. You need to be living on the continent to appreciate the gradual — sometimes even painful — but sure drive of our respective countries towards stable democracies and economic prosperity. But who are the drivers of this renaissance?

In this thought-provoking talk from the 2007 TEDGlogal Conference held in Arusha, Tanzania, Ghanaian economist George Ayittey describes these people as the agile “Cheetah Generation”, a new breed of Africans who are taking their futures into their own hands and moving the continent forward.

This, he contrasts with what he calls “Hippos” — the lazy, slow, ornery (and thankfully, dying!) generation who have ruled and ruined post-colonial Africa over the decades.

Click on the image below to play the video. Total video length: 18mins

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Several years ago I took a decision to stop making new-year resolutions. Before coming to this decision, I would make resolutions every new year, but would never keep them beyond the first month. So I reasoned that it was better I didn’t make any resolutions at all, than to make them and live with the mental agony of not keeping them.

Of course this was a flawed thinking, as I did believe, even than, that setting goals and watching them slip away was a higher level of consciousness than not setting goals at all. Yet I came to this flawed decision based on my level of awareness at the time.

But now the reason why I still don’t make new year resolutions is because of the way I plan. I like to set specific, measurable targets, and work towards them. And being the dreamer that I am, I’m always flirting with one idea after another. I find such year-long resolutions limit my adventurous journeys into dreamland

Besides, I think it’s a stupid idea to wait till the beginning of a year to actually resolve to do something meaningful. As we go through our daily life, we meet so many challenges and opportunities along the way. I see no reason why I have to wait till some magical moment before resolving to take action.

But for those of you who keep new year resolutions, I’m curious to know how you’ve gone a long with your resolutions for this year, now that half of the year is gone. The available statistics are not encouraging at all. According to one survey,

• 75% of all new year resolutions are kept through to the first week
• 71% make it through to the second week
• 64% last after one month.
• and only 46% are kept after 6 months.

So why do so many people make these New Year’s Resolution, yet very people actual remain faithful to their own pledges? I think the biggest reason why most new year’s resolutions are not kept is that most people regard these as mere wishes, and not something they actually resolve or commit to accomplish.

What about you? It’s mid year now … how far have you gone with your own 2007 new year resolutions? What’s your thoughts on new year resolutions in general? Don’t be shy … share your thoughts below.