40p - The start of a new Era

Just got a bit of luck and took advantage opportunitistic situation - just got a Vending machine freebie - one Galaxy Caramel - and sold it for 10p less than the Vending price to a guy at work 40p bagged!

Needing pounds, finding pennies

Ok so I just found a penny on my local station platform, my initial thoughts were - cool - that's another penny for my challenge. My subsequent thoughts were hmmm I need more than pennies to get back on track...

I'm still not taking enough action!

Finding pennies may get me to my target amount... eventually, but not in my target timeframe, I was thinking if I slipped one or two months but still achieved my 1 year target, just in 13 or 14 months - would anyone notice? Obviously I would know which wouldn't be good, but still begs the question - who am I doing this for? If just me - would I be happy with myself if I changed the rules of the game, I am just about still playing?

Well no I wouldn't - this was suppose to be a mind/context shifting experiement, and in some small ways it already has been, in others I have simply learnt if I take no action I basically don't get closer to my goals - shocker...

moving forward but too slowly

OK so I have sold a hat on zazzle to someone in AUS and got a larger amount of money - £1.30, previous sale to someone in the US only yielded 0.79p; so quite a significant difference, I have found a few bits of money on the way and home from work (2p and 1p) on separate occasions and lastly I have created quite a few more products on zazzle as it appears to have started to yield some income, yesterday I sold a newly designed mug and also got a referral fee - I think because I directed them to my zazzle shop so gained a whopping £1.12 for the mug and £2.09 for the referral, so I didn't make the March target of £64 on 15/3/2010, but at least I am now above the February target of £32 - see leader board to the left.

Over the weekend I created a number of zazzle products based on Indian English - hope this isn't seen as a bad thing, I have been working with some offshore partners and some fun phrases have come up, that I thought over people would appreciate!

today's target - 4 days over £30

Thinking about the double your challenge and my lack of activity of the last 3 or 4 months, I guess the key for me at the moment is 2 things that equate to the same principle.

The challenge or any other endeavour can only really be achieved by consistent daily motivated action towards your end goal, it's probably so obvious that I missed it, the outcome of daily action is self fulfilling momentum, I.e. if you are consistently moving forward all the time, it's difficult to not reach or surpass your initial goal, and the investment of time and energy gives you a platform for further action.

So time and management of it becomes or paramount importance, so what have I been upto, that was more important than the challenge to myself and others over 6 months ago?

Well 2 things have come into my life that I wasn't expecting in the slightest

1. I became addicted to singing, last year I went on a free 7 week voice training course, run by a local barbershop chorus, I became immediately engrossed, they just happen to be one of the top ten UK chorus's, I went through the course and gave a performance to friends and family at the end, I was completely hooked, I have since passed my audition and joined the chorus and am now an official barbershop'er. The time commitment for this is around 3 hours singing on a Thursday night, then as we are training a big conference in may some weekend sessions, plus once I have learned the full repertoire, which can take a couple of years, there are the numerous 'sing-outs' and charity events that the chorus attends.
2. In a daze 'cause I found god! I know it sounds glib, but it's true, I have been on the under current of a spiritual journey for the last few years now, and am going to get Christened in May along with my children. the reverend that is going to christen me recommended I go on an Alpha course to explore my faith fully, this is currently going on and taking up Tuesday nights (7:30 - 10pm) plus one Saturday morning in the near future, I have also attended church a few times but this is trick as I normally look after the children at the weekend to give me wife a bit of a break. Also I have started a plan to read the bible within 1 year, so this is taking up the majority of my train journeys.

To some extent these are simply excuses, but what it means is I have had very little to no time to focus on the challenge; and if I am to carry on pursuing monthly and the yearly targets this is precisely the point where I have to have consistent focus and daily action.

Fwd: What is the best way to teach creative problem solving and the entrepreneurial spirit?

Ian Hopkinson wrote: Hi Roger It is an interesting thought, one that has cropped up in conversations recently... My personal view is that whilst we can learn, i.e. we can all improve our business skills through study and experience, there is something that sets entrepreneurs apart. The entrepreneurial skill is in part derived from: - Intelligence - Attitude to risk - Personality - Ability to befriend - etc This is by no means an exhaustive list. My main reflection is that the skills are soft skills which you are usually born with and are then to some degree shaped as you grow up, yes you can have coaching and try to learn how to befriend people... It doesn't mean that every entrepreneur is successful and the theory that you are testing "commercially focused problem solving can be learnt and tested in the real world with a simple context" I agree with. There will be different levels of success depending on the decisions made by each participant. Just because you have the soft skills (and everything else required) doesn't mean you have the desire to want to be an entrepreneur. One major point is that contacts (helpful ones) is a big factor to any success... Would be interested to hear the outcome of your study... Cheers Ian Question Details: -------------------- What is the best way to teach creative problem solving and the entrepreneurial spirit? Are some people simply born with the required skills? Can the skills be taught? What role does real life experience play in a good entrepreneur? I have started a challenge/game, where I am testing theory that commercially focused problem solving can be learnt and tested in the real world with a simple context (start with £1 of your own money and double it every month, consistently for 1 year, to end up with over £4k). If you are interested or know someone that this would suit, please forward on the link http://doubleyourmoneychallenge.blogspot.com where you/they can sign up and give it a go, no email registration required, just honesty, willingness and the time to give it a try. Thanks Roger View question ((1 answer) - Respond to Ian Hopkinson

LinkedIn Answers • View question ((1 answer) • Respond to Ian Hopkinson

First Zazzle Sale! + £5 won on gifted scratch card

Just when I was thinking that this would be the first target I would miss and I have been pondering on what I should write about it;  last night I collected £5 from a scratch card my parents had bought me and this morning I got an email from zazzle - my first sale! - money to me $1.20 or GBP 0.79p

Right that's it - I'm selling shortbread today! Let's see how much more momentum I can get...

testing testing 1.. 2.. 3..

just testing connectivity between my blog and my twitter account via twitterfeed.com, seems like a good idea!

This morning at London Bridge, Money and man urinating found

This morning on my way to work because of the rain I went a slightly different way out of the station, walking up onto the central bridge to exit via a more covered platform, as about to turn to go down the stairs I noticed a scrunched up piece of paper on the floor, looked like it might be money, I was hoping! Much to my surprise it was £5.00, pleased with my find; hoping it might reinvigorate my doubling challenge I turned down the stairs only to observe a man urinating on the stairs, I turned away as if I hadn't noticed and carried on walking, excuse the pun but it slightly dampened my spirit.

Although I am now the only one still ahead of target even without today's find, the months have been flying by, the £8 and £16 target came and gone extremely quickly, and for sometime I have been spending too much time reflecting and being busy with the rest of my life and not enough doubling action, some time ago I bought 99p's worth, or 11 packets of shortbread to sell again at work, again at 20p per 2 fingers that should have returned £11.00, but haven't got around to selling them - lame! One guy, at work, did ask if I had any more and I sold him 2 for £1 - he insisted - I will give him the other 8 for 'free'.

With the 15th February £32.00 target approaching quickly I need to get moving again and sharp-ish! Need to sell off the shortbread and with the £5 today I should be nearly there!

Magic moola, well almost

Awhile back when I was looking at the 30DC I set up a google alert, which is basically an email to you per day of a google search result on your given keywords, the difference between this and a standard google search is that the alert contain new finds, found in the last 24 hours, my keywords were "Double your Money".

It sometimes returns some interesting results, but most of the time it returns the same kind of drivel over and over again, a number of results about forex trading - make £400 in 10 minutes with our no brainer rules - is this possible - who knows? Something about a famous sports player moving from one club/team to another. Another being witty about the best way to double your money being to fold it over and put it back in your pocket and even more witty about a way of doubling your money in 54321 years. As I said mostly crud.

But recently it mentioned something that caught my eye, a web site that paid you for playing online games, not too arduous moola.com - each player starts with 1p paid for by advertisers paying for you to watch a commercial before the each game begins, if you win you immediatly double your money; by winning the other players money, if you lose the game you reset back  to 1p. You play players at the same monetary level as yourself, and you can cashout at any point, so 28 wins in a row?? 1 million dollars...

Unfortunately on further inspection it is only available to US and Canadian citizens, coming from the UK this doesn't help my journey whatsoever, for doublers over there why wouldn't you give it a go?