Wednesday, July 4th, 2007
by George Appiah
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.
Thursday, June 7th, 2007
by George Appiah
Here’s a slideshow of how Guy Kawasaki built Truemours, a Web 2.0, user-generated content, citizen journalism, long-tail, social media site, for a grand total of $12,107.09. The full blog post is here.
Thursday, June 7th, 2007
by George Appiah
Whoa! I signed up for immediately LinkedIn during it’s public beta stage, but never quite got to actively using it to build contacts. For a long time my profile had been languishing at just 5% completeness. But now need to actively build those professional contacts … so I spent an hour this morning to work on my profile.
I really surprised myself with how much I could do in just an hour. Equally surprising was the rather large number of college mates who are already linked in on LinkedIn — ALL of whom currently reside in US or Europe.
After the profile is in a good shape, I’ll then start actively building my network of professional contacts, which is currently languishing at just 5%
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
by George Appiah
For the past two years, I’ve been an Internet addict. I’ve spent a huge amount of time online following the latest trends and innovations in new media and social networking, and the businesses and individuals that are steering them. I’ve seen many young people start from scratch with nothing more than their ideas, and built great businesses that serve millions and hundreds of thousands of users today.
And I’ve also observed with keen interest, how individual writers are jumping in to to make their own small fortunes by tracking the ecosystem of these new businesses. Unlike big media houses, these indy publishers have great communities around their content, fun and interesting conversations often take place.
Here are my top 5 of these websites that actively track online business startups.
- TechCrunch: Michael Arrington does a good job of bringing the scoop from online business startups, often several weeks before they’re open to the public. The sites archives is a great resource for studying the progression of the new breed of online businesses, some of which are currently doing very well, some barely surviving, and others already in TechCrunch’s deadpool.
- Mashable: I call Mashable the bible of social networking. Mashable tracks all the latest from the biggest social networking communities, and the new breed of businesses that are springing up to provide top-up services withing these communities.
- VentureBeat: Written by Matt Marshall, VentureBeat (formerly SiliconBeat) has been my go-to source for news and information about private companies and the venture capital that fuels them.
- GigaOM: Om Malik writes about the web, mobile and broadband technologies. It’s my favorite source for all-round geek stuff, as it’s Om is not entirely focused on startups like the other three above.
- PodTech: PodTech does in audio and video what the above four do in text. It’s always been a great blessing for me, sitting behind my computer in Accra, and watching interviews and demonstrations from some of the greatest technology and business leaders in Silicon Valley. Recently, PodTech.Net has evolved from a purely content producer to a full-fledged online video network, hosting content across all subject areas, from the most serious stuff to the most funny.
