Facebook buys 2yr old company Instagram for $1B

Kevin Systrom, the guy you SHOULD've been tryn meet at SxSW.
Too late. #WasAllGoodAweekAgo

Two quick things before i let CNN take it away…
1)They REALLY were adamant-just last week- about staying indie- one more piece of proof the greats dont do it for money. (but EVERYONE has a price-lol)
2)The illest line in the whole article is the last. Think about what people need THEN create. Thats the job of the artist circa’ 2012.
-@HaZiQ

(CNNMoney) — Facebook has agreed to buy photo sharing network Instagram for $1 billion in a combination of cash and stock, the company announced Monday.

It’s Facebook’s biggest acquisition ever, in both price and reach. With around 30 million active users, Instagram has the largest audience of any startup Facebook has purchased, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post.

“We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all,” Zuckerberg wrote. “But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.”

Founded in 2010 by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom, Instagram has just a handful of employees supporting its wildly popular photo app, which lets users add distinctive filters and visual flair to photos they’ve snapped on their smartphones.

The long-awaited Android version, released last week, racked up more than 1 million downloads in just 12 hours.

Exposed: 10 big myths about successful entreprenuers

 

1. To Be A Successful Entrepreneur You Must Invent Something Truly Novel. Wrong, but I doubt facts will stop achievement-obsessed upper-class parents from building “replica garages” for their kids’ play dates, to instill in them whatever made Hewlett & Packard and Jobs & Wozniak do what they did. Big Error! Why? Ask yourself what Sir Richard Branson invented, then remind yourself that Ted Turner didn’t invent TV news, all he did was perfect it and disseminate it (via CNN) brilliantly.

Entrepreneurs who build better mousetraps are the exception, not the rule. Most business builders look at the world, see things that can be improved upon, break the mold, and add value. They prod, poke, and push paradigms, infinitely more often than they cause cataclysmic shifts. Take the crème-filled cookie, now 100 years old: Everyone thinks that Oreo invented it because it dominates the market niche. Nope, it was Hydrox. Oreo was a Johnnie-come-lately to the game – but owing to better marketing and, some claim, a better recipe, Oreo now owns the space.

15 things they SHOULD’ve taught us in High School..(but didnt..)

Top of each level- is the bottom of the next.

We all have learned a bunnnnch (hopefully) since High School. And i dunno about you but here are a few things i wish idve known earlier… Like, seriously, why wasnt there a class on some of these?

-@HaZiQ

1. The 80/20 rule.
This is one of the best ways to make better use of your time. The 80/20 rule – also known as The Pareto Principle – basically says that 80 percent of the value you will receive will come from 20 percent of your activities.

So a lot of what you do is probably not as useful or even necessary to do as you may think.

You can just drop – or vastly decrease the time you spend on – a whole bunch of things.

And if you do that you will have more time and energy to spend on those things that really brings your value, happiness, fulfilment and so on.

2. Parkinson’s Law.
You can do things quicker than you think. This law says that a task will expand in time and seeming complexity depending on the time you set aside for it. For instance, if you say to yourself that you’ll come up with a solution within a week then the problem will seem to grow more difficult and you’ll spend more and more time trying to come up with a solution.

So focus your time on finding solutions. Then just give yourself an hour (instead of the whole day) or the day (instead of the whole week) to solve the problem. This will force your mind to focus on solutions and action.

The result may not be exactly as perfect as if you had spent a week on the task, but as mentioned in the previous point, 80 percent of the value will come from 20 percent of the activities anyway. Or you may wind up with a better result because you haven’t overcomplicated or overpolished things. This will help you to get things done faster, to improve your ability to focus and give you more free time where you can totally focus on what’s in front of you instead of having some looming task creating stress in the back of your mind.

3. Batching.
Boring or routine tasks can create a lot of procrastination and low-level anxiety. One good way to get these things done quickly is to batch them. This means that you do them all in row. You will be able to do them quicker because there is less “start-up time” compared to if you spread them out. And when you are batching you become fully engaged in the tasks and more focused.

A batch of things to do in an hour today may look like this: Clean your desk / answer today’s emails / do the dishes / make three calls / write a grocery shopping list for tomorrow.

4. First, give value. Then, get value. Not the other way around.

5 Banned Books you should read anyway.

If u cant laugh at ignorance... u just might be ignorant.

Ok soooo when i arrived to hartsfield terminal in ATL to start this tour couple days ago& was told my bags were 11 pounds overweight it disturbed me-i packed exceedingly light for such a long trip and didnt even have that big a bag. My awkward feelings only increased when i realized it was mostly all the (hardcover) books i’d brought. Yeah… ive heard of kindle. ive even bought them as gifts for people- but i still like physically turning the pages in a book. Even when its bulky.

Recently a new reason to keep the books here in the physical realm came to me though- consider that if the gov’t decides to ban a book or a movie today- all theyd have to do is remove it from your ebook menu… #ThinkAboutIt

At any rate, here are 5 books they decided in the past you werent able to handle for yaself…All 5 have been condemned, banned or even burned. What do u think?

1.Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Way before he got name dropped by Jay Electronica, Vonnegut was expanding minds. This masterpiece in nonlinear story structure that moves forward and backwards in time, Vonnegut’s book centers around possibly delusional solder Billy Pilgrim, who is captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. While detained in a slaughterhouse, Billy experiences past and future events out of order, including being kidnapped by aliens and the moment of his murder. Exploring the concept of fatalism over free will, Vonnegut’s book is as much of a trip as Billy’s journey to the planet Tralfamadore.

Steve Stoute: BrandMaster

The idea of product placement in movies has been going on since Edward Bernays (see the article about him in an earlier post) this dude is the first to really use that same corporate model within urban music though. His companies’ Blue Flame Mktg- and now Translation- are both vanguards of this burgeoning industry.. this 5minutes is worth your time.

@HaZiQ

INFLUENCERS in-depth Series / STEVE STOUTE from R+I creative on Vimeo.

The Top 10 Absolute BEST Salespeople Of All Time

This list is no specific order in terms of success scale etc. Instead I really tried my best to place the names you havent heard of first so we begin to associate brands we see- even huge ones- with the work of a single or a few dedicated person(s). Also- i highly encourage you to google these names if you’d like to improve your own skills. I personally hold forth that there’s no more important skill-set than salesmanship..

:-$
Enjoy.
@HaZiQ

NAPOLEAN BARRAGANThe founder of 1-800-Mattress was a genius at using technology to open new sales channels for his Simmons and Sealys. He was one of the first and most successful adopters of the 1-800 number, correctly predicting that consumers would be perfectly willing to have mattresses delivered to their homes sight unseen. Soon after the advent of e-commerce, he registered the domain name mattress.com, and derived significant online sales at a time when few retailers were thinking about the Web. Fun fact: The Ecuadorean-born Barragon got his start in 1950s Colombia selling beer and soda from the back of a burro.

Bruce Lee’s Goal Sheet

The main thing they screwing us on in the public school system is the lack of education and training in the areas of goal-setting and visualization. Alllll the Greats from Michael Jordan to 50cent to Muhammad Ali to Will Smith have expounded upon the good things you can expect when you train your mind to picture what it wants first…

*Here’s his letter translated*

I, Bruce Lee, will be the first highest paid Oriental super star in the United States. In return I will give the most exciting performances and render the best of quality in the capacity of an actor. Starting 1970 I will achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1980 I will have in my possession $10,000,000. I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness.

Bruce Lee
1969

Do u use lists? Hows it working for you?
@HaZiQ

7 reasons NOT to check email in the AM

I see thru you... You lil' time-burgular.

If your morning routine is usually turning over using the potty (checking twitter) then going STRAIGHT to the email box… u may want to reconsider after this..

Personal development expert Sid Savara makes the argument that checking email first thing in the morning sets up for a day down the wrong track.

enjoy
-@HaZiQ

#1 Ignorance is (fully productive) bliss
u knew what u wanted to do before u cut it on… why does that change the second you do?

#2 Its not YOUR todo list..
9 times out of 10 its just a bunch of stuff someone ELSE wants you to do. Who cares? Well you do, but just not first thing in the morning..

The Top 10 Inspiring Books for Entreprenuers

You say THIS year’s gonna be different right? The only difference between your life this year and last year will be the people you meet and the books you read. Im not saying its advisable to read all of these back-to-back, in fact dont.. but DEFinitely pick out a few and check them out. Its AMAZING what a little perspective can do for you- take it from me. I think it was Einstein who said ” A mind, once expanded, canNOT contract..”

So how can i endorse a list if i havent read all of these you may ask? Well, the list won me over by listing the 4hour work week, Rich Dad Poor Dad and Think and Grow Rich.. if you’re serious about 2011 those are definitely three nice places to start.. I also want to give an honorary mention to “The War of Art” by Stephen Pressfield. It will change your life.

-@HaZiQ
:-$

1. How To Get From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be? by Jack Canfield

Jack Canfield is best known for his Chicken Soup for the Soul series. In this book, he mentions the 25 Principles of Success – that have been a common thread among the most successful people from all walks of life. This tops the list in Collegefallout’s books for entrepreneurs. It reminds me of “Good to Great” and “What it takes to be Great” by Dennis Kimbro I think….

My 2011 New Years Revolutions

I dont know about you but I’m not one of the cynical folk who believe resolutions are just a load of BS. I think its all about the journey- not the destination- and even if you dont reach all of them- NOTHING is more important than goals.

Against all odds you gotta admit this was a helluva year. Some of my personal highlights were:
1)I won the MTV freshman 5 contest (by landslide)
2)My debut video premiered on both MTVu and MTV2
3)I got All-HipHop “Heater of the Day” honors twice in a week!
4)My first paid tour.
5)Gettin record done with Akon
6)Spending a week or so in India. Not Indiana. lol.
7)Makin honor roll my first semester back in school…lol

So overall, not a bad year at all. Im ready to see what this one has for the kid!!

Also, a wise man once told me that the worst kind of person is the one who doesnt work on their weaknesses…

So with that said, and in the interest of making ALLLLL of you my accountability partners- here- in no specific order- (drumroll) are my New Years Resolutions for 2011…

-@HaZiQ