I’ve got two things for you.  They’re blogs.  They’re written by cool individuals.

Blog #1: Kareem Mayan’s Blog
He’s a Product Manager at FOX Interactive Media.  Other than being a really great filter for media / entrepreneurship / generally cool stuff, I dig his insights.  Example: “talent flows to where bureaucracy isn’t.”  Cool.

Blog #2: Young Entrepreneur Journey
I keep thinking it should be Young Entrepreneur’s Journey, but who really cares?  (This coming from a guy who’s blog is called “What’s the Deal?”  What IS the deal?)  A good post on negotiating caught my eye.  He also makes cool diagrams.  Rock on.

If you’re starting a business, want to start a business and/or have an idea for a business, I can’t stress to you enough the importance of the five-second soundbite.

This is a process.  Honing your concept into one crisp, cogent sentence doesn’t happen right away, and it may take a few weeks for you to become truly comfortable with communicating the concept to others.

When I first started communicating Groupvine to people, I was one part nervous, one part unconfident and one part embarrassed because I couldn’t communicate it well.  My first attempts ended in that awkward side glance — the universal “I-don’t-get-it-but-I’m-being-polite” look. 

So in time and with practice, Groupvine’s 5-second soundbite went from “a project management tool that runs campus organizations” to “an online tool for campus organizations” to “we make it easy to run campus groups.” 

It’s certainly not perfect.  It will probably change.  But people get it, and they’re intrigued.

The beauty of the 5-second soundbite is that it’s simultaneously easy to understand and vague — specific enough for someone to “get it,” but general enough that that someone wants to know more. 

Next time someone asks “what do you do?” — have your 5-second soundbite ready.  And if you’re still struggling to find that perfect balance, just keep practicing.  It’ll happen soon.

A number of high-achieving people have said to me that they have this inner voice in their head that basically compels them to do something, constantly improve themselves and push their limits. 

This is a catalyst for getting things done and seeing results materialize.  I’m not saying that everyone successful has an “inner voice” compelling them to do things, but I’ve noticed a difference between the leaders and the followers.

Ryan Carson says he’s noticed the same thing, so I’m going to link to a well-written piece called “Builders & Doers vs. Whiners & Trolls.”  His point?  There are two types of people — doers and whiners, and the former takes “responsibility for (their) own attitude and circumstances.”

A little tidbit:

The point is that you can either whine about things, or you can take steps to start changing them. If you’re not happy with your situation, you’re the only one that can change it. As an ex-Whiner & Troll, I can tell you that life is so much more exciting, fun and worth living as a Builder & Doer.

If coffee is my friend, then Starbucks is my best friend.  I love coffee.  At 20 I was drinking coffee black after vowing never to drink it just 2 years before that. 

Coffee (or caffeine) lets us work harder, faster, longer and think more clearly.  But what’s behind it?  To answer my own questions, here’s a quick “guide” to coffee.  After this, I’m going to Starbucks…

You’ve lost that lovin’ feeling
Coffee’s kick comes from caffeine’s ability to dilate your blood vessels and increase your heart rate.  At the same time, caffeine lets you perform tasks faster, think more clearly and make stronger and more meaningful mental associations. 

Each traditional cup of coffee contains about 100 milligrams of caffeine, with the lethal limit for humans being about 10 grams.  So that means that if you drink around 100 cups of coffee in one day, you’re dead.  Don’t do that.

But being careful with coffee isn’t just an empty “threat” — apparently it’s got the same addictive properties that you find in cocaine and heroin.  And if you drink above 5 cups of coffee a day, you could risk anxiety, headaches, and visits to the water closet that won’t be pleasant.


Sleep: don’t get your hopes up
Obviously caffeine screws with your sleep.  That much is obvious.  But how much is too much?  Apparently the caffeine found in coffee hangs out in your body for about 6 hours, even though it’s a diuretic (it moves liquids through your bodily more easily).  It causes sleep that’s less deep than normal — so when you wake up, your body will want more caffeine. 

I can’t say for sure how much is too much coffee to drink, but I’ll return to my last point: 5 cups or more is probably pushing it.  If you drink that much, don’t plan on sleeping that night, either.


The Health Benefits
So you can get addicted.  You can get headaches, you might not sleep as well and if you drink too much, it might not be pretty.  But there are some pretty solid health benefits, apparently…

WebMD reports that coffee can bring down the risk of Parkinson’s, diabetes, colon cancer, heart disease, can lessen damage on the liver from drinking, and can control asthma attacks.  Wow.

Check out this excerpt:
After analyzing data on 126,000 people for as long as 18 years, Harvard researchers calculate that compared with not partaking in America’s favorite morning drink, downing one to three cups of caffeinated coffee daily can reduce diabetes risk by single digits. But having six cups or more each day slashed men’s risk by 54% and women’s by 30% over java avoiders.

OK, so drinking 5 cups or more a day might be OK, especially if it can help you run faster, longer and overall be more athletic, as the article also reports. 

With that in mind, I’m going to Starbucks to get me a nice cappaccino.

Sources: Coffee Review’s “Coffee and Health,” Howstuffworks: “How Coffee Works,” WebMD: “Coffee: The New Health Food?”

If you let stress, uncertainty, life changes, transitions, relationship fluctuations, mistakes and/or anything else to screw up your motivation and focus, you’ve got to learn how to get back in the game.

Life is in flux.  “The only constant is change.”  Yeah, we’ve all heard it before.  So that means we have to deal with it.  To get real.

When the above happens to me, I zone out.  I lose touch.  My brain stops spinning like it usually does.  I go numb — maybe as a way of shielding myself.  I don’t know.

I bet the same happens to you — maybe from worrying too much, iterating too much, working too much. 

Realize the value of engaging your mind with people that stretch you and make you think.  Being around people that simultaneously make you feel relaxed but while making your mind work sharpens you.  You wake up and feel refreshed. 

Then realize that you can do whatever you want in this world.  Seriously — whatever you want.  Once you have those two things, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do whatever you’ve always wanted to do.

Good things are comingi your way.