I am Sameer

[Before anything else; Can you click the +1 button on the left side? I'm not asking you to promote this, but its for your bookmarking, so that you don't loose this. Trust me you'd thank me that you kept the link. You can find it later in your Google+ page]

Yeah.. You read it correctly. Only Idiots don’t own blog or any other type of websites. This category also includes those .blogspot and .wordpress.com blogs that only have one page slammed into them. You don’t own them; you only rent them. Do you get it? I will get to the stupids (I’ll tell you soon why I’m being a jerk about it) who don’t own a blog/website soon; but let me fiddle with the minds of other category of people who think that they own a website but do not.

Why is A Blogspot/Wordpress.com a Website that You Can’t Own?

Having a thegreatsameer.blogspot.com can’t be called a blog that you own. Almost everyone of my generation must be having one of these.. Login into your google account and go to blogspot.com and you’ll have all your memories coming back to you. I have one too.. its knowsameer.blogspot.com. Don’t you open it; I’d be embarrassed. Well, the point is you don’t own these. Its as if Google and WordPress have given a small chunk of space to you for rent/lease. Except the fact that you aren’t paying them directly.

Its the same with the free gmail and yahoo mail accounts that you have <– You see; I din’t say you own them. Scroll down the gmail page and at the bottom you’ll find 2012 Google Terms & Conditions page and after reading it you’ll discover that, the existence of your google account is just at the spare of Google’s approval. There have been many instances where gmail accounts of the biggest internet marketers have been closed off without any warning. Same happened with the blogspot.com blog of ‘Grizz’. You can search for ‘Grizzly make money’ and you’d get to know his story. To summarize the horror, He was living off of his blogspot blog that was earning him close to $30,000 per month, until one fine day he discovered that his blog was shut down without any explanation, and no matter what ‘Grizz’ tried, couldn’t bring back the website.

In summary; having a blogspot or wordpress blog doesn’t make you own it; you just have it.

And to those people who don’t even own that: Don’t be ignorant even after reading this; go ahead and at least get started with the free blogs at least.

Which Way Of Blogging Will Thee Choose?

In my opinion there are crudely two ways of blogging. For the the simplicity I’m excluding other type of websites (that serve a specific function, like bookmyshow.com or flipkart.com). You can have your blog falling in one of the following category.

1) Un-themed Blog

2) Themed Blog

The above category should be self-explanatory; but I’d insist you read through, as you have to understand both of them thoroughly and choose between the two.

When the concept of blogging began early in the 2000s, this was the way people blogged. Back then, owning and running a website was thought of to be a complicated and expensive task, as it involved the need of a nerd and heavy wallets. When blogger was introduced, they essentially removed the ‘coding’ from the equation, and let the creativity of people strengthen. Thus began flock of people posting everything about their daily lives. They got a new pet, they blogged about it. They did the laundry, they blogged about it. They got fired because of the manager? they blogged about it.

So basically, these blogs are mostly people writing about themselves. If its on youtube, you call it a ‘vlog’ or ‘video log’.

This is what we call the un-themed blog, where-in one post might not be in any way related to the other. This type of blogs are good for one thing. Keeping a journal.  Once on the cloud, your entry is immortalized and it stays fresh and alive till you die. They are also good for keeping your friends close. May be you blog only about your friends circle, and they like to read about it. And thats that; nothing more to it.

The problem with this type of blog is; they’re bad when it comes to monetizing. They are bad if you have to make money online.

Its  not that the sole purpose of a blog is to monetize it or earn out of it; but if there exists a way to fulfill your writing desires and at the same time, earn the hell out of it, then why not?

Time and again, these types of blogs are even though appreciated, fails to gather readership of common interest and thus it fails to fall into any of the categories which could earn you good money.

e.g. my own website, knowsameer.blogspot.com and most of your blogger blogs which have less than a 200 Facebook likes. Also those hosted websites where in you have purchased hosting space, domain name, but you just write about yourself. Include those blogs too where you post once in blue-moon, and totally forget about it later.

You will have hard time differentiating between themed blogs and un-themed. But having a pattern or a baseline for the blog will make the entire difference. Now here, you might still be writing about yourself, you might be writing daily, weekly or once in a month. But you have a pattern of writing. People know what to expect in the coming future. They like your pattern, and they want their expectations to be met, and that is why they would like to ‘like’ your blog, or +1 it and open it again letter when you write, because it is something that they want to read and not something that you want to tell.

In most of the cases here, you are willing to write down a path that you take to get somewhere; where many people would want to go. Just for instance; you want to learn how to play guitar. While you learn how to play guitar, you also create a blog about it and share your experience as you go. People are interested in hearing what you have to say, because they too want to learn guitar. Your interests match, and they are able to follow you; and they’d actually wait for you to write, or make a video of yourself. This was about hobbies or learning something new.

Its the same with many other things; like fixing and modding assembled PCs, writing android apps, fixing car/bike which can be blogged about.

I want to show you a few examples, so you’d understand better.

You think its all international and there ain’t no one local or desi? Have a look at the following examples; and you’d know how these blog owners are sitting on top of pot of gold; whether they realize or not.

I hope you get the point here. You need to own a blog! You being unique from others makes it all even more worth it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to set it all up. We already are a rocket scientist, given the fact that you are reading this long blabber and actually understand it? We are capable of designing and developing apps on android that are used by millions, reduce load times in server which serves to billions, come up with algorithms that perform better than the best; then why be lethargic for making something for ourselves?

Time isn’t far away, when online real-estate would be given the same credibility as the physical real-estate. When you invest (time & money) in a blog/website; you are not loosing anything. Just so that you know; you can at any point of time, sell the blog 10-50 times the money it is making in a month. One of my friend from the Make Money Online Institute nicknamed ‘skinnyninja’ made a huge deal, which has given a whole lot of inspiration to others in the business. He was a drug addict for many years; and for the last 10 years he has been sober. He wanted to help many others who were going through the same phase. So he started a blog and wrote to people to help them; and within 2 years, it was making $1000 online a month for him, until an advertiser called him up and offered $200,000 (1.00 Crore INR) to buy out the website, which my friend did accept; under non-compete agreement. And now, he owns several other blogs in other markets. Read about how he sold his flagship website for 200,000 USD.

You don’t have to be a Ninja-perfect to share something with others; Nobody is. You just have to start, rest of the crowd will show you the way. I know many people have excuses, and many would claim they are genuine! So I’d take a minute to list all those default excuses here and bust them later.

God this post has become way too long!. I know many of us have always dreamt of having a blog with our cool profile photo slapped on it. I assume this must have only helped you to consider it more seriously. Give yourself a chance; for once, trust on what you know, trust on the life that you have lead for the past 20+ years. I’m sure there are stories to be told; lessons to be taught and pictures to be shown. Whatever it is; there is someone else out there, who would be interested in listening to what you have to say.

Go ahead and click the below link; and drop in your email address. And; do not forget to share this post with everyone, to whom you think would be useful.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Have you ever noticed any of your friends copying a slang that you use quite often? Or visiting a tea shop that you used to take him to often? Or ending up buying most of his clothes of the same brand as you wear?

I don’t know what you call this in psychology; but put in simple words; peers affect one’s subconscious mind. It is true majorly with the vocabulary, verbatim, behavior too in a few cases.

Slangs Get Copied

And as often as I have noticed; this has nothing to do with a person’s perception of his friend being right or wrong. Lets turn you into a subject now!. You have a guy in your friend circle who is always funny and somehow is capable of turning any situation into a laughing stock. You admire him. He uses a plethora of slangs; and within a few weeks subconsciously you’d have started using the same slangs as a reflex response.

This explains why almost everyone has ended up using the words “Koole”, “Dabangg” and many others as a standard response to various situations.

If you have a friend in your circle who drifts in the turns, and is always above 100kmph when driving; be assured that in a few weeks, you would most likely be driving the same way he is (if in any way you liked how he drove).

So What The Hell?

Slangs, jeans brands and driving styles are just the tip of the iceberg. There is much more to this than you probably can see. Let us accept the fact that we’ve been one of the affectee one or the other way? Haven’t you copied someone’s opening conversation line, or may be that signature mockery-facial expression that you show to someone who was trying hard to be funny?

Let us accept that we are easily affected. Now as I told before, this is not just about the brands and slangs; it’s also about the way we think and our actions. Associating our self with a friends’ circle who often cajole and have fun; we most likely end up being the same.

Become a room-mate to two guys who are smokers; 2 months later you are a smoker too. If these guys start off with pot, chances are you start with the pot too.

Become a room-mate to two guys who are drummer and pianist; may be you end up with a guitar?

We Knew This; What’s New?

Resisting the change; or resisting being affected could be very tough and might even jeopardize sending you into a depression. Although its very tough to control the way people affect us; it’s quite easy to control whom we are exposed to and whom we spend most of our time with. Now here is what we can do.

1. Decide on What You Want to be (this is not in the sound of those big motivational books; it’s a bit on the lighter end; e.g. if you want to be more occupied, be reading more books, be a good guitarist. Something like that).
2. Find out stuffs that is taking most of your time which you don’t like, E.g eating, hanging around at the tea corner, driving home, talking with your girlfriend (no; there is no other way around for this) and cut that out from your daily routine. Most can be if you fixate on it.
3. Find out stuffs that can help you steer towards what you want to be. Stuffs here could be Facebook groups, online forums, online coaching classes, and be-friend someone near-by to you geographically who could may be keep your progress in check. Its always helpful to have a friend who has the same drive as you, and both his failure and success will for sure serve as a motivation to you (might sound sadistic in case of motivation against one’s failure; but again.. its doing you good right?).
4. If at all possible; form a friend’s circle who have the same interests; and start hanging out with them; or join such an existing circle. This can really have magical effect on how your routine and behavior might turn out to be.

Always keep in mind this one thing. Try to cut as many ‘stuffs’ as possible from Point 2, and add as many ‘stuffs’ as possible to Point 3. Keeping the 3 higher than 2 should do the trick.

One of my good friends wrote why he is getting rid of the Facebook account. Prove to him that there still exists some useful stuff in the lands of CastleVille, SmallVille, CityVille and ShitVille; that could radically change the way you look at your daily routine and the way you feel about yourself at the end of the day.

You see; subscribing to this website is one the ‘stuffs’ from the point 3. So go ahead, indulge .

Popularity: 7% [?]

How many movies, stories, blogs haven’t there been about the best moments in one’s life. This ain’t gonna be about that. Lets talk about the most awkward moments that happens to almost everyone of us. This is not about the worst moment; or the saddest. The most awkward moments! The following list is hugely inspired by my own life; and everyone else is more than welcome to add-on to the list. Also, since list is biased because of my gender; I’d like a feminine perspective about the topic.

1. Open Zip

This does not need any more explanation. It is self explanatory! You’re inside the bathroom; you just took that most important leak, had your hair re-combed, checked your tie again, and made sure that your pen is in the right position. You’re nervous, but you know you can make it! you are confident!. This is the most common scene of the people who forget to zip up their pants; and off they go for a stage presentation, office meeting, wedding and what not! God bless you if you were wearing undies which are colored with fluorescent red and green .

2. Unfinished Handshake

Your friend has hosted a party, or may your school buddy is getting married. All of your old friends have come; half of them you haven’t seen since an year or two. Everyone is shaking hands; there are so many handshakes happening, you are awestruck at the mere number of germs getting exchanged. Now there is someone who really admire, and you find its not just you who is fond of that person; there are a couple more people who want to shake hand with him. You extend your hand and you say “Voila! Its been so long! How have you been”, and the guy gives his hand to the guy beside you. You are standing there with the smile still glued and with the hand extending waiting for your turn. After a while the smile from inside has disappeared, and people are starting to make out your pathetic attempt to keep showing your teeth. You slowly draw your hand and may be brush your hair with it, pick nose or do something else?

3. Unfinished Story

Its dinner time, and you have a dozen of friends sitting around and you have this great story to tell about yourself that will make others laugh out rolling. You wait for the guy to stop ranting about how he kicked a dog BS Bs bS; and then you start with yours “This crazy thing happened; I was waiting for the cab to go to…”. “Cab reminded me of something..” interrupts a bully in the group and then goes on “there was this chick who was so damn hott..” and just like that he snatches your audience without even the audience realizing it. What else can be awkwerder than that?

4. Bike Doesn’t Climb the Footpath

The traffic is at its best, and you are stuck in this narrow road. You are just beside the sidewalk; and you already see almost everyone riding on the footpath. You are encouraged to do the same and you try to have your bike rode on top of the sidewalk. Clutch. Gear Clutch Gear Clutch Gear, grr grr grr grr. Half a kilo of mud just got displaced but your hind wheels are still in the same place. You pull back your bike and stand where you were before. It isn’t like there are people out there who are laughing at you when you do it; its about how many of them there might be

5. The Bus Massage

Uh… This is the worrest moment you can ever come across. Many of us travel in the bus; and there are places where buses go where-in you just can’t be sitting straight inside the bus. Holding the rods for the support turns out as a life-line. In this case, from nowhere there comes a guy who leans in on that road or the seat and his ‘X’ part is touching your hand. It could be a lady too.. in 99.999% of the cases its an ugly ass lady whose face starts and ends from head to chest. Now you know X is touching your hand; and you can’t do anything about it. Because you know that you can’t sit without the support; and if you pull your hand out, you risk having to go through all the friction with ‘X’ to get back to the same support on the rod which definitely is a bad idea.

Umm… Those are what I can come up with right now.. Help me add some more things in this list. Lets turn this into a big reference list

Popularity: 2% [?]

Disclaimer: Before you even start reading; I should warn you that this article talks a lot about the Trishanku Swarg that you go to after you quit your job; and before your business/venture really takes off. So it might not cater to you at all. For a sensible SuperEmployee, this might not make any sense at all. You’ve been warned.

Why Do We Buy Motivational Books which ask us to Quit Job?

1001 books talk about Entrepreneurship, and whether you believe it or not; the life outside of a ‘job’ or life outside of ’9-5′ has been over-hyped a bit. At least that is what I’ve come to know; since 6 months. Or may be; I haven’t seen it all yet. Pick any of the book from the ‘Business & Management’ or ‘Self-Help’ Section from crossword, you’d find a line or a para that talks about the beautiful life that is waiting for you when you quit your job and walk out of the office. Hell! This is one thing why self owned business seems so enchanting to so many of us. Now I come to understand that this is one of the idea upon which the book capitalizes and the book authors makes money! Do you get it? You hate your job; you wake up and pray if that day you did not have to go for work; if somehow magically everything could be taken care while you slept for one more hour and nothing much changed after you woke up? No managers who look down on watch and look at you; no irritating outlook popups from the bottom right corner of desktop. No spammy looking emails with ‘BUG code‘ as their subjects, no corner coffee machines which have been touched by every living and non living organism.

All of a sudden you see a book titled ‘Hate Your Job? Learn How To Live Without It’. You buy it!. Most of us do. Have you wondered why best sellers are named as ‘4 Hours Work week‘, ‘Before You Quit Your Job’, ‘Why We Want You To Be Rich’. Because they sell because of their titles. If you have been looking at Entrepreneurship as an option since you hate your job; stop looking! instead; get another job which you actually don’t hate; silly.

Anyways, this article is about what lies beyond job; for people who chase freedom of time and money than security. If you’ve found your golden way of living outside the job and you’ve been considering quitting job; then there are a few things that you might need to take care of.

Why Would I Quit My Job?

Well, answer is different for different people. Many people find their passion to be more important than their job; and they make the leap; they decide to give it all they’ve got. Musicians and artists are one example. Others; who are not so artistic; find ways which take care of their financial needs and they offer themselves a choice of not pursuing the 9-5 career. And yet others walk out of job; because they would like to do the same work for themselves this time!
We won’t talk of finding those ways here though . We’ll assume you’ve already found yours.

10 Things To Do Before You Quit Your Job

Before you put down that fancy little resignation, and save it in your mail in order to look it up months later and enjoy the same old grin on your face; there are a few things that you might want to keep in your check list.

1. Secure Fallback Capital/Reserve Funds

You need to have a load of money piled up in your or your parent’s or spouse’s account that you are not gonna touch unless 2012 was happening. This is the money you’d be touching only when the crisis has been bestowed upon you. If your income is 50k per month; make sure you have saved up 25k per month each for at least 6-12 months. That being a minimum of 1.5 lakh to 3 lakh. I’m safely assuming here that you don’t have EMIs against home, car, appliances; and if you do; count them in on top of 50% of your monthly income. You’d definitely need to have it; and in very very liquid form.

2. Ensure Additional Income Source

‘Kootundare kudike honna saladu’ is what has been taught by my mother since my childhood. Save how much ever you want; but if you sit and eat, even a pot of gold won’t be sufficient (liter translation). You gotta have an additional source of income; that puts money in your pocket each week/month/bi month. Otherwise how would you explain quitting your job? Never ever say to yourself; ‘I’d quit this dreaded job first; and then I’ll see if I can do something’. Wrong! 3 months on; you’d end up using your reserve, and you’d be back to square one. Make sure you’ve already done something that is bringing you money repeatedly; or you know how to do something that will bring you money when you do it. If you haven’t done any one of this; stay put my friend; you’ve a job to do. It’d be stupid to walk out of a job without knowing what to do.

3. Ensure That Your Added Time Make a Difference, Get Yourself A Plan

If you’re working for a company; you’re legally bound to give your services to the employer; both inside and outside of office. But no employer would want you to work 24 hours a day (or are there any?). If you were able to do something beyond job hours without affecting the productivity at office and if this something of yours doesn’t threaten the business of employer; then you will most likely be spared of legal nuisance.

Do you think you quitting your job will make a difference to what you’re doing? Do you think your added time will multiply the outcome in your project X? Is there no way you can keep your job and still make a magnificent difference in what you are doing by using the means of outsourcing and delegating? Sit down for a while and re-evaluate as to why you want to quit your job. Is it because your business is in need of you now more than ever; or is it simply because now you can afford to leave the job? If latter is true; stick with your job unless the reason no.1 materializes.

Having a plan of action for post-job era is tremendously important before you quit the job. You can’t say ‘I will quit my job and do X’. That’s naive. Spend a few hours for writing down what would be your responsibility and work once you are outside of a job. 9-5 becomes annoyingly long time if you don’t have an action plan. Make sure you have jotted down plan for at least next six month. Also ask yourself if adding 9-5 to your project X will actually make a significant difference?

4. Grab Credit cards & Loans

This might not sound to be a very nice slogan; but I’ve been there with this trouble. Since my business is of an online nature; Credit card happens to be a must for me and even loans. Its not that you can’t pay in time for credit card and loans; it is just that its lot more harder if you’re not employed.

Whoever says to you that ‘Credit Cards are bad; don’t use them’ surely doesn’t know how to use it. Same goes with loans. If you were to try to get a credit card and a loan outside of employment; behold; you need to produce at least 3 years of IT filing. Voila! It din’t take that much of time for Facebook or Flipkart to go Ga ga. Since we have very low probability of being Flipkart or Facebook; we might need loans. Get credit cards and loans (very optional in case of loan) before you quit your job. And if you’re not able to keep up with the credit card, you can always cancel them.

5. Quit Being Procrastinator and Sloppy Deadline Setter before Quitting Job

One fine day you quit your job; and now you’re sitting at home with 10 packs of maggie stuffed inside your fridge. You wake up at 12 o clock; may be brush teeth, grab a cola and sit in front of TV from morning till evening and say to yourself ‘Hey boss; can I do that work tomorrow?’ and you grin and say to yourself ‘nyaah.. do it tomorrow; cos now even I’m busy watching TV’. Thats the problem; You’re the boss; and You start being easy on yourself. What was supposed to be done today; gets postponed to tomorrow; day after that to day after that; whose gonna ask? me? My boss loves me; I love my boss.

Set your deadlines straight and start getting uncomfortable when you don’t strike them off. Get a whiteboard and paint it with your goals and deadlines. Let it be daily deadlines and let it mock you every day when you don’t strike them.

Remember; you’re the one doing your own appraisal so give yourself the correct rating and make your own progress reports. If you go easy on yourself on this; your business would most likely take you only that much seriously.

6. Cure Your Paycheck Syndrome

Its most likely that you’ve been used to getting the salary amount credited to your bank account on exactly the same date of each month on same time. You swipe your card minutes after that and the money is magically present there; not a penny more nor a penny less. You won’t have this type of greenery when you’re out. Expect floor licking income charts for a few months; and income that will shatter through roof during other months. Get used to this turbulence; cos this is where great sailors get their bravery tested. So; in short; you work your ass out for a complete month; and the income drops by 60% right then, you’re expected to say ‘Amazing’ and go back and give a little more.

7. Draw Your Social Circle & Enroll for Physical Fitness Program

This goes out for people in job too; ‘cut that flab man’ & woman too. Even I happen to be working on this. Don’t tell me your company doesn’t have a gym. Find time to do some cardio and start cutting some flab each day. A day begun with sweat will surely fill you with enough energy for an entire day.

Whats problematic with people outside job is the social circle; especially if they aren’t into a brick and mortar business (not literally). If your business is online; you’d most likely be sitting in a corner staring your computer screen and hawking profile photos of your friends and half of your life will go off in commenting and liking those photos.

Go out; socialize; attend some parties; throw some parties; attend seminars; go to movies. And by socialize, I don’t mean Google or FB chat. Otherwise you are sure to be eaten up by boredome (self experience). You will only realize the importance of coffee corner gossips once you’re outside of a job.

8. Prepare A Time Table My Child

I cannot stop emphasizing on the importance of this. If you don’t have a daily time table; you won’t last long in this ‘Trishanku Swarg’. While in job; someone else sets your time table; and you don’t have a choice but to follow it. Just because you have a choice here in this case ruins the probability of you turning up for your work in time; how much ever hard you try. Fix a time for sleeping and fix a time to wake up; and adhere to it no matter what. Go on slowly to fix a proper time for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the rest will slowly fall in place.

9. Learn Something New & Awesome

You’ve been given the gift of time; and till you run out of this gift; its only clever that you learn something new. And by that I don’t intend to point at the next Java or C#; I’m talking about the passion or hobby that you’ve been longing to learn. Do not expect this to add money to your pocket; but expect it to add immense happiness to your heart. After all what is the use of all the time; if it is not spent in smiling .

10. Become Shameless Enough So That You Can Come Back

You’re not on a war against the job; and neither should you be stupid to convince yourself that everything is lush and flowery when you’re loosing continously out there. When your business isn’t working the way it was supposed to be; wait; because the darkest hour is just before the sunrise. Give in your best; and give some more in; live till your stockpile is exhausted. And if still you aren’t where you were supposed to be; may be the darkest hour is still to arrive. Get a job and start from Step 1.

Don’t confuse stepping down with quitting or giving up; it simply means that you are gonna bounce back higher.

Popularity: 22% [?]

If you read everything and answer the questions in the last paragraph; you get to win a gift voucher! So sit tight and read everything.

Thats one hell of a controversial title . I know; Comments might bash in very soon, and most of them would be harsh; but I’d still take a leap. But before you say anything; please read out the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: This is a totally PERSONAL opinion. Because I’m saying it; it need not have to be a FACT; although there are a lot of facts being used in here in this article, it doesn’t mean I’m going to draw a conclusion and that is going to be absolutely right. This IS and WILL remain an opinion or insight. Its quite common for any one to get numbers wrong. So don’t start cribbing in comments saying the price is wrong, source is incorrect and dates are wrong. I’m not a history teacher and I just happen to be providing an insight for those people who are deciding whether or not to be a part of the program.

Well, with that being said, I had been hearing about Speak Asia Online from one of my close relative to many of my friends. My relative spoke highly of himself and told me that he was earning 90,000 per month from Speak Asia Online and he was doing quite well in the business and he even quit his job to pursue the business and he would soon be crossing lakhs in income. This isn’t a very old story; we had a conversation may be 4 months back. I was sincerely surprised as to what platform could provide someone with an income of close to 1 lakh per month so I visited the website.

Speak Asia Online

www.speakasiaonline.com

The first thing I noticed after I visited the website was a sloppily designed asp website and as it would stand out; it was done in haste. Every ‘big’ company has a ton load of information to share about themselves and the process and methodology they follow.

Speak Asia Online In Media

What Does Speak Asia Online Do?

Speak Asia Online does not seem to show or share in detail as to what exactly it does; sure yeah the concept page tells about a typical online survey website. Is this what you tell an online survey candidate about online surveys? 3 paragraphs? that’s all? After surfing around a while through various pages and reading the content, I could realize that it was just a hyped up survey site. Before you think anything else about survey websites; here is a list of genuine survey websites that actually pay the surveyors in the form of money or gift vouchers and have stood the test of time; and few of them I too have been a part of.

Nielsen

Your Voice

Survey Savvy

If you look at these sites closely; These website don’t advertise “Join Us And Make Millions” as they are rightly balanced to invite both the people who would wish to survey and also the companies that are willing to get a market survey done. But in the case of Speak Asia Online; that doesn’t seem to be the case. The website simply invites only the people who would want to make money and are slightly aware of the online survey programs. I know that this is just a vague explanation of how things were supposed to be put together and you can argue that this doesn’t prove that Speak Asia is a scam but I’d argue that these are the little things that shouldn’t go un-noticed when you are opting for any new opportunity.

In simple words, Speak Asia Online as it states; is a survey panelist provider. Neither are they any market research company, nor analytics company and neither do they give any type of business intelligence or business solution. They simply provide panelists who are qualified to give an online survey. Thus the deliverable of Speak Asia to their clients is quite simple; set of online panelists who qualify for their surveys.

The Business Model of Speak Asia Online (As Stated By Company Itself)

Here is a video where Managerial staff from Speak Asia share their abstract business model and how they operate.

Also in the site they mention a few things about how they operate and what happens to be their business plan. Here is what I’ve understood from it.

You pay around 11,000 Rs to join Speak Asia Online and receive an online ‘ezine‘ that basically teaches you to excel at online survey and understand the basics of online survey. Once you have completed 8 weeks of training, you become a panelist who is usually qualified to give survey opinion to the clients of Speak Asia Online. After this; you get to attend around 2 surveys every week, which pays you Rs.1000 in total after the end of the week which turns out to be around Rs 51,000 after an investment of Rs.11000 ( wow Awesome you must be thinking! ). You can also refer some one from your circle to this business who will have to go through the same process and attend surveys to get paid for it. You also get to enjoy the benefits when one of your referral gives a survey.

Now; for every survey that is sent out to you; Speak Asia Online collects amount from their ‘undisclosed clients‘. According to the payments being done by Speak Asia Online, it seems that every survey is paid with Rs.500; plus incentives given to the upline (referrer) who referred you to the business. Thus, if Speak Asia Online were to make handsome profits, every other client who are ready to do business with Speak Asia Online need to pay at least Rs.500+ per survey. Speak Asia collects the panelist fees from their clients, and pays the person who completes the survey for every ‘honest’ response and keeps its cut as profit.

To ensure that the panelist is filling out genuine response and an honest response; the company seems to implement ‘complex algorithms‘ inside their servers which is capable of finding hastily filled out and randomly filled out forms just for the sake of money. The payment to the work done by panelist is paid out in reward points; which can be directly used for transaction within Speak Asia Online, or can be en-cashed to Indian Rupees with an exchange rate of $1=50 Rs no matter if even US economy is down and you have a current Rs.35 per $1. Apparently the company does this to keep the things simple.

Company firmly believes that by offering a monetary reward, the panelist are more likely to give an honest opinion and actually take time to give a valuable feedback to the clients of Speak Asia Online. They believe that the initial Rs.11,000 is collected from the members to impart ‘seriousness’ about the work that they would be doing and get their attention to reading the ‘ezine’ and get better at filling out forms and giving opinions. They deny being an investment company and do not impart a message to people which invites them to ‘invest‘ in them to gain a X times return on their money. They state that the payments to the survey are being done at an internationally competent rates and they have clients both in India and abroad.

Anyone for that matter can join Speak Asia Online for free and take surveys; but he won’t be eligible for any kind of remuneration. The company conducts various seminars and events in order to impart consumer awareness and company awareness and bond building. The company strongly believes that there is strength in the population and a united voice could tell so much to the companies that are giving out surveys to Speak Asia Online. Their intensive knowledge in the field of survey tells them that the physical way of collecting feedback has been often a hassle and quite inefficient. They say when people are asked for feedback in front of malls, just when they are walking to their office, the response is often biased and effected by their mood and the companies don’t get to have the real and trustworthy information. But when you actually surveys available online for people; the panelist can choose the time of his comfort and give his best to every question asked.

They seem to be proud about having given business to lot of cyber cafes across the nation which were nearing a shutdown. The company even has an ambitious plan to reach out to 1 million plus panelists in India as they have already crossed a whopping 7 lakh subscribers. The company states that it has invested millions into the development of technology to enable the panelist to take complete advantage of it and ease a lot of things. The company has even spent great amounts of money

Business Model Of Speak Asia Online According To Me

The Sloppy Technology With Lack of Security & Encryption

I love this space . Being a software engineer and having worked on various web technology; I could bet you a $1000 that they haven’t invested ‘millions of $‘ or millions of rupees for the development of technology. It would have been fair to say that they invested thousands of dollars into the development. The website neither seems to be Https secure nor is secured by any other encryption to protect details of the panelists. Please understand that in today’s age if there is any online platform which is transacting money in any forms; it need to have a reasonable security and encryption.

The company states that it has ‘complex algorithms‘ implemented in order to find out false surveys. I would say BS! Have a look at their website and you’d know that they designed it as if a road was designed only to carry a ton load of treasure (once). I’m not just cribbing about the looks of the website but the entirety of it; a company which doesn’t give a s**t about their mission statement and goal and methodology is hardly to have invested on a technology of understanding human responses and judging them.

Company Seems To Be Targeting Middle Class People & Not Clients

What concerns me the most is the voracious advertising being done by Speak Asia Online on both print ads and TV ads. Below is one of the TV ads that was constantly shown during the IPL Matches. Now who watches cricket the most? You guessed it right! the majority of Indian Population. The ad seems to oversimplify the process of making money. It seems to communicate a message to the mass which says ‘Hey! You can sit at home; relax, take a cup of coffee, fill out a form and be done with lakhs of rupees‘. What more does a lazy middle class person like me want?

Hitler once said..

Great Mass of people fall prey to big lies than the small ones

Wasn’t he right 60 years back? Its the same even now. You see a TV ad in between IPL match along with the ads from companies like Sony, Samsung and you instantly compare and digest the probable credibility of the company. You attend a seminar of Speak Asia Online and see that there are 1000 others clapping around you while you wonder as to what might have been a clap-worthy statement and you start convincing yourself ‘These many people can’t be wrong‘. Gladly Galileo didn’t think that way when he stated that sun was the center and not earth; and now we know who was right.

Have a look at the following video which rightly demonstrates what exactly happens to you during the seminars and conventions. Its called Group Pressure. It looks so stupid when you are outside of all this

There is nothing wrong with ads between IPL and train bogies filled with hundreds of people with Speak Asia t shirt ranting Speak asia speak asia! and full page news paper ads that invite you to a better and bigger dream world. Whats wrong here the picture doesn’t complete; the pieces of puzzle just doesn’t fit together. The company seems to be spending millions of bucks for advertising and pulling in panelists; but we fail to see a single ad; a paragraph, a textual line, a picture which tries to woo the clients; the big companies that actually are the source of money which is paid out to the panelist. Is it just me or that everyone else turned a blind eye on this? Seriously? You send out thousands of ads to convince a common man to signup for their program; but nothing is required bring in big clients?

When press did ask them about the cliente; the staff seemed to simply veer off the question or answered in a childish manner and ultimately denied to reveal the client list because of the competition they can face! (they did offer to disclose the list if the needed were to sign an NDA <- I’d have done that) Are you kidding me? With 10 lakh panelists on your side; you are afraid of competitor taking you over than your company risking shut down because of the allegations being made? I wonder who their clients are who would still wish to pay them for the surveys despite of the recent blackening of Speak Asia Online in the media.

Company’s Biased Rules Toward Signups

This comes out to be a shock to me! The company promises a honest and valuable feedback to the client companies; but it allows multiple signups from the same person. WTF? If I were to invest put-in 11,00,000 INR into Speak Asia Online program; then I can own hundred panels; and if I gave 100 surveys the first week, I’d be getting 1 lakh back! Wow.. A single person filling same surveys 100 times differently would still be paid? Paid with the client’s money? Doesn’t this make you wonder? This option only has been open in order to get people to dump in more and more money! Understand the trick silly! Well, here is even more interesting thing. Everyone from my family can signup and any- one of the family member can give the survey; who cares? the family is getting the money; that’s all that matters. Problem is; clients know this already as they too get to know what are the signup requirements of Speak Asia Online. If you were to own a company; will you be willing to get a survey done by Speak Asia?

Company charges 11,000 for imparting ‘seriousness’ and getting them to read the ezine. But if a freely signed up panelist does well in filling the survey; he doesn’t deserve to be paid? He is both serious and committed; but cannot afford to pay for the eZine; yet he needs to signup for the eZine that he really doesn’t require? Why is there no provision for those people who can be absorbed into the program solely based on their performance? Colleges give scholarships, Tuition centers offer discounts for bright students; why not you? And in any case; it would prove to be an advantage to your company right? An added 1 million panelist? It seems like the company ‘actually wants that 11,000 Rs‘.

Basic Requirements for a Panelist

This is a show stopper! I laughed out on this . You don’t need to submit any identity proof, neither address proof, neither PAN card number and nor date of birth proof. Simply give 11,000 and your name; you are a part of the program. Its only when the payments arrive that you have to enter your name and bank account number; and that is not cross checked. How cool is that? Yet you get paid in Lakhs!. Now; for a survey to be given which is showed in English; doesn’t the company understand the the person has to be literate to a level where he/she can actually understand the language? and be able to use the computer in order to open up the website, log-in and take the survey? Why is literacy or basic computer usage a minimum requirement in their website? It seems like anyone and everyone can signup provided they take up the eZine subscription. The company saves itself by stating that the ‘eZine’ gets them ready for the surveys online. How can a magazine be useful if someone doesn’t know how to read?.

When you look at it this way; it seems like everything has been made favorable for anyone to join the program, and it seems to be a total downside for the clients who are associated with Speak Asia Online.

No Line of Responsibility

You buy a brand new TV from E-Zone; take it to your home and switch it on and watch it for 3 days and the fourth day something goes wrong; and the TV simply doesn’t seem to switch on. What do you do? You get in and drive to E-Zone and ask for the guy who sold the TV to you; and then you share your problem; he takes you to store manager who makes some calls and arranges visit to your home, 2 days later you are watching IPL again.

In the above case; you know to whom you are giving your money; and you get a set of documents saying that you paid some money, you get a bill, an invoice and warranty card and other policies with huge number of phone numbers to which you can call. When something goes wrong;  you know where to go, whom to ask and you’re certain that they would help.

In case of Speak Asia Online, you DON’T Send your money to the company directly; neither are you writing a cheque, a DD, or paying cash. You buy your panel from an existing franchisee. This particular model of payment has been used by all proven ‘scam’ MLM companies. There is no line of responsibility here. Suppose tomorrow the website simply stopped showing up; whom do you ask about it? your friend who introduced it to you? cos he too is clueless to the extent you are; he asks his upline. Ultimately; there is no one to hold responsible, and this entire chaos of blame game gives enough time for the fraudster to make a clean escape. You get a bill, warranty card, invoice for a pen drive of Rs.400; but you don’t get anything like that after paying Rs.11,000 ? wow!

Its a wonder that Speak Asia Online pulled it out without having an office in India. Yes its understandable that law doesn’t need them to be registered or to have an office in India to perform business; but can you tell people one reason why NOT to have an office? So you wouldn’t do anything that law doesn’t enforce you to do? For example; being nice to a customer isn’t enforced by law. But that doesn’t mean you DON’T need to do it.

Numbers Don’t Make Sense On Client Side

If we were to pull out a simple calc on the numbers being given by Speak Asia Online, it seems impossible for anyone to buy the service offered by the company by any other client.

Here is a simple math calculation ( I know analysis is paralysis; but common sense saves you both )

7,00,000 panelist X 8 surveys a month X Rs.500 = 280,00,00,000 Rupees ( 280 Crore Rupees ) Right now; at this moment; one or few companies are spending more than 280 Crore rupees to get their survey done Every Month. When this number goes to 10,00,000 panelists, the amount of expenditure on survey every month would be 400 crore rupees each month.

Assuming even if they have 10 such big clients ( if they had 100, we’d know at least a few), the per company cost comes out to be 28 crore to 40 crore rupees per month. I’m not sure about you; but I’m really skeptical about this amount being spent by a company simply on a survey from another company which lets people hold multiple accounts and lets them give the same survey more than twice.

On channels like Sony; a 10 second TV ad placement costs anywhere between 2,00,000 Rs to 4,00,000 Rs. With an SMS response number, the same survey type of results could be achieved from that huge money. What I’m trying to say is; amount such as 28 crores isn’t the kind of money spent on surveys especially every month.

Another grave gap I found was; they never mention about the continuity of the surveys. Yeah; they’re giving you surveys every week now; but they don’t seem to state anything about the availability of the surveys throughout the year. Going ahead; they might simply cut down the cost of the survey or the number of surveys given per year and there is no law that would prevent them from doing that and neither do they clarify about it in their TOS. In that case, your income would sharply fall back to only recruiting commission which will only end up benefiting the company more.

What Might Really Be Happening!

Here I go; This might be the boldest opinion posted around; and I might even get sued for for defamation. And if something like that does happen and I am forced to pull down this post; I’d post a post with only a title ‘GODSAVEINDIA‘. And if that appears; you’d understand what happened.

The 280,00,00,000 Rupees that is being pumped from clients might not be true at all. What I believe is it must be your own money. You pay Rs.11,000 for ezine; and we all know that an online newsletter would never cost Rs.11,000 unless it was a ‘Secrets of Mayans Being Told To You Alone‘. So its very plausible that all the binary commission, direct referral commission, and referee survey commission is all coming from your own pocket. Your money is paid to your upline and your downline’s money is paid to you; and the eZine simply saves the company from getting shut down by government. Its a mandatory rule for any network marketing company to have a product or service for which people are charged, and the commission should not just depend on only recruitment. The company seems to fulfill all of these criteria.

Only question is; would you be willing to buy a soap for Rs.11,000? Be whatever reason they give for it? Because A soap would cost what it costs; so a newsletter should cost what it costs.

It seems fair to assume that company is doing magnificent promotions to get as many signups as they can and reach their ‘secret kept profit goal‘ and once that is achieved; abscond. Well, you might have invested put-in Rs.11,000 expecting 51,000 Rs at the end of year; they have invested in crores only to quadruple it X-ify it before they leave the market and that won’t happen unless a specific number of signups is achieved.

The promotions, TV ads, Newspaper ads, Rallies, Seminars, and everything that’s happening is only to speed up this process and hit their best kept secret target.

Their stance against anti-Speak Asians

I’m laughing after seeing the public-notice against the people who are defaming Speak Asia Online. Everyone has freedom of expression and anyone can write an opinion about company and can post assumptions unless they outright make a false claim. Why does the company chase these people if they are really confident about their quality and ethics and their integrity? Why run bloggers down for posting against them? Simple. Its affecting their signup adversely and they are getting mad about it. If you are a speakasian, you have put in money in it; and posts like this are pulling down your sale and you too are getting mad about it .

We Don’t Have  A Problem Why Do You?

A common message that everyone seems to be hearing about is; the ‘speak-asians’ saying ‘We are getting our money; we are being paid well, then why do you have a problem‘? The problem is; the armageddon hasn’t happened yet. No one is robbed off their money yet. The way everything is going; it certainly seems like it is going to happen soon. When some one is paying you well; you emotionally and intellectually get attached to it/him. You are emotionally attached to a friend who usually gives you good treats and you are also attached to the employer who generously pays you for your work. This faith will usually end up blinding most of the people and gives them a feeling that the rest of the world is jealous of their success. But only a few understand or realize that this is often a bait which makes you work even harder and slog to get more money for the company. This turns out to be a curse in disguise. End of 3 years if company were to shut down and if you were able to triple or quadruple your money; you’d rather be mourning for the lost time and lost friends in the process than having been cheated by the company even if things were legal and by the book.

A Message To Every Middle Class Indian

There is nothing called ‘easy money’. Unless you shed this hope of finding that magical way where you can simply multiply your income with little or no effort; you’d be robbed time and again. I know that its difficult to live the way you are living now, and every penny in your pocket counts, working a little harder and firm belief in yourself will get you much more further than where companies like these can take you.

The path that seems to be impossible for you might just be the way you had been looking for all along. Only thing is, it wouldn’t have a signboard besides it. Learn to find it.

Why I Don’t Join Speak Asia Online?

The text above was an answer for this question. This doesn’t simply feel right and I’m not buyin it. That’s the reason I’m not investing in Speak Asia Online. At least not now. Moreover, the company being registered in Singapore had had a bad history with different company names. Plus; its very very easy to setup a business in Singapore and their laws are milder compared to Indian and they are open to a lot of foreign policies. This whole thing of buying in Rupees and paying $ just doesn’t fit the story.

Why & When Should You Put In Money In Speak Asia

Having told you why I wouldn’t join Speak Asia Online, there could be momentary reasons to join Speak Asia and use their flaws against them. Signup for an account in Speak Asia Online and get your entire family registered with your own money under your down-line. Not only will you receive binary commission for all of them; but you also receive direct referral bonuses and referral commission for each of the panel. Give survey for each of the panel and you end up earning passive commission for each of the seat. Finally when you are withdrawing the money, you can accumulate all the reward points in one account and encash it.

Rinse and repeat this, and you can turn your throw-away money into a handsome money. If you can get your relatives to put in their money who understand the risk of this company; you can both benefit from the possibly-scam program. You have a whole lot of black-money? You just found your ticket fella! Start putting it in Speak Asia Online; till our govt and law fails to act on it; who cares if an Indian is getting richer right?.

The right time to put it in would be NOW!. I’m not sure whats gonna happen in next 2-3 months or 1-2 years; now would be the time they wouldn’t stop on giving you commission; as that is what would be motivating you to drive more sales. With that said; I won’t be investing anyways.

I Am A Moron; I Am Pessimist; I Am A Skeptic; I Am Unambitious; I Am  A Loser

That would save you a lot of comments! I’m exactly opposite to whatever is written above; may be except the moron part. Well, I don’t intend to say that ‘Dude! Your money is doomed; you looser! You put in that money and now its gone!‘. With more than 7,00,000 people having invested money with them, I’d pray things turn out in favor of people. I’ve lost countless amounts of money on similar companies which promised to change lives and lost most of it. That doesn’t deter me from taking risks; no sir. That has only taught me to find out scammy looking companies from a far distance.

Following are the things that might turn out to be life saving for Speak Asia Online and might turn out well for all of you; and I might turn out utterly wrong (which would actually make me happy)

1. A Visit by the company owner to India to handle the current situation
2. Setup of Various offices and help centers across India in order to cater to pleas of panelists
3. Setting up basic requirements for people who signup as a panelist
4. A proper crash course or orientation for newly added panelist and not a sloppy ezine newsletter
5. Tax rules adherence to every level
6. Company Registration in India
7. Making the annual sheets of the company public.
8. Tying up with clients who are willing to sign a no-competition agreement and are willing to reveal their identity or revealing the current client list.
9. Philanthropic activities by Company and not from the money of panelists.
10. Limiting the number of accounts to one per person.
11. An official statement on the availability and number of surveys given out per year.

Well, if that happens, you must have taken the best of the decisions till date. If not; my 5000 words post just turned out to be useful. Below, I’m sharing a few useful and read-worthy links that might open your minds to new perspective.

Speak Asia Scam- A Study

Earning From Online Surveys – Economic Times

If you do wanna know legit, legal and slow ways of making money online – get to know it here.

P.S: I lied about gift voucher

Popularity: 33% [?]

Its been quite some time I’ve been wishing to write this. 2 years after college, and I feel quite qualified to write this article. With enough experience to back my dialog ‘Been There Done That‘ I can write about useful ways that would give you a cozy nap inside the classroom under the hawk-y vision of the lecturer.

What is Engineering after all; if you cannot fabricate methods to get yourself comfortable in the most impossible situations?

Disclaimer: The techniques/positions mentioned below requires professional level of acting skills, and they also require you to be mentally and physically prepared for the consequential situations that have good chances of happening. Also keep in mind that this work demands great practice and ‘never quit’ attitude. I’ve written this technique keeping in mind about boys; no exposure to girls’ techniques.

The Un-Eagle Eye

They say an eagle can spot its prey miles away; and lecturers have the ability to spot sleepers the same way. Thus it is important for you to establish a connection with the lecturer and instill a feeling of you not being one. There are few simple ways to do this. Pay close attention to the lecturer while he is teaching; and give noticeable nods when the lecturer is looking at you; or ask a tiny doubt that doesn’t get you into a conversation or debate; or smile ( which should have a look of ‘you are great sir’ in it). Once you have done this; you become immune from lecturer; they are no more looking at you; or; they believe that they have your attention. NOW is the time to make the move!

Bring your left hand and place it on desk; cover your forehead with palm as if you were massaging your head and continue noting down things with your right hand. Make sure that your left hand is completely covering the head and your head is actually resting on that hand. Go to sleep! I suggest you get your biceps strong for better results.

The Sleep Bursts

This technique is special in its own way. It has maximum benefit if you keep practicing it all the time. Put your left hand on the desk and rest your head sideways and continue noting down the points. But stay awake!! The lecturer initially assumes that you are sleeping; and WILL ask you questions; and YOU MUST answer. Continue this for a week at least; and never sleep, and by the end of the week; the lecturer’s subconscious would have registered the thought that, this is your ‘normal posture’ and will not bother to ask you anything. This is when you make the move; and go into sleep . You can wake up again after a while simply to ascertain that you were not sleeping and go back again… into sleep bursts.

Saluting Crane Technique

This is a progressive sleeping posture. You begin with taking notes on the desk; and you act as if you are un comfortable writing that way and you pull up your knees and push back in order to rest them on the desk and you pull your notebook on top of the knees and start writing. After a while this too is uncomfortable and you drop your knees down and you put your notebook on lap and you start writing; and by this time your head is already bent and your face is visible to nobody but the notebook on which you are about to drool. After some time you rest your head on the desk and continue noting down; and you can then slip into slumber. NOTE: Please keep in mind that you can be called out any time; and make sure you ask a doubt before the lecturer asks you anything? You need to prepare this ‘doubt’ before you go to sleep and make the doubt complicated. Its okay if you are a drooler in this case; as you’d be drooling vertically, you won’t have anything left on face to exhibit.

I Got An Eye

The good thing about this technique is that you can sleep with your face up! and even if your lecturer looks at you straight into the face; he won’t know a thing. The sad part is; you can’t reuse this technique. Wear a shade and sit inside class; and when questioned by the lecturer smile and say ‘Conjuctivitis; I got eye‘. Sit down; and start sleeping. Make sure you are sleeping in a very attentive posture. This technique should get you at least a week worth of ‘memorable’ sleep time.

Sex Change Technique

Only drawback in this case is; you will have to figure out and remain anonymous during the roll call. Wear a burkha and sit beside a girl you’ve convinced to let you do so (promise a pastry later). Sit back, relax; and sleep. (this is humor so don’t go ga-ga over me for this).

My Own Technique

This has proven wonderfully useful to me; and never have I been caught doing this in the past 10 year (yes I invented it 10 years back and many others have paid price for it). Pre-requisite for this is that you need to remain anonymous to the lecture from the very beginning. If you are a very famous figure inside class, this might not work well. Another very important thing is; when you are trying to pull this; you need to get the seat in the last-est bench possible and ensure that the lecturer can’t get anywhere near that bench (put other benches near so you can essentially block the lecturer). Once all this is ensured; give your roll call and slip down beneath the desk. Sit on floor; face backwards, rest your head on the seat and sleep soundly. For better effect ensure you are between 2 guys and they should be good actors. Once you are down; you should come back up only for the roll call of next period! Else; there are good chances of getting caught.

P.S: If somehow you happen to be called out; no worries, take a pencil in hand and come outside and declare that you were searching for the pencil.

Do This If You Can

I’d love to hear you pulling this off. This requires preliminary photoshop skills. During the first few classes; sleep deliberately until you get caught. Make sure you repeat this till you are thrown outside. Once that happens, wait for the lecturer to finish the class; and once he comes out, approach him and apologize; and when he doesn’t budge show him the medical certificate which you created using Photoshop which states that you are Narcoleptic and you are undergoing treatment. Combined with the guilt of throwing you out of class, and the sympathy on your situation; you are sure to get a whole-sale pass for sleeping inside class for the  rest of the semester! In the mean time; make sure you really don’t get Narcolepsy

Popularity: 29% [?]

4 Hours Work Week: Read This & You’ll Know If To Read This Book Or Not

I had been wanting to read this book since a while; and when I did read it, I felt I should have done it long back. Title alone caught my attention. Imagine! Who would not want to work only 4 hours a week and still be paid the same way. It took me less than 2 weeks to finish it, but I still can remember many of the phrases from the book, and it is definitely a book which you’d regularly want to go back to; both as a source of reference and motivation.

This book is simple in wording; and gets right on to the point. Timothy Ferris hasn’t written this book based on others’ experience but his own experiments. The book introduces you to the ways to cut slack from your daily activities and make it transparent to you; and actually show you as to how exactly are you being productive (if at all). Tim goes on to mention that we fool our-self as being productive where as we are simply caught between not-so-important turmoil of daily life and business. The book teaches you beyond prioritizing your daily activities and time management; and shows you a whole new perspective of getting rid of those activities which look as if they were important and urgent, but actually are not.

What This Book Is Not For

This book is definitely not a motivator (the context I stated in the first paragraph is a different one). If you happen to be living a miserable life since a few months, and are looking for an adventure out of your life, and want to ‘try’ your hand at business outside the cubicle; then this will definitely NOT serve you as a right motivator for you. This book already assumes that you are motivated and fired up! In fact it doesn’t even uses sentences or phrases like ‘think big’ or ‘chase your dream’ types. The base assumption done here, or the majority of the audience addressed here are those people, who have the fire in them, but are ‘stuck’ in a 9-5 grind for variety of reasons like family, house loan, medical expense etc etc.

This book doesn’t venture into changing your attitude. Please read that sentence again. It does not cater to changing your present character. Do not expect to read the book and be enlightened about yourself by the end of the week. That ain’t gonna happen. This book is only good for you if you always wanted to do something off the rulebook.

SPOILER: The book involves talks of ‘quitting the job’.

Readability

This book is 100% readable; and doesn’t require you to go through a para or a whole page just to understand it. There are not many terminologies or above the head terms used that would require you to sit next to a dictionary. Throughout the book you would find a lot of references and URLs which are definitely makes you keep the book with you just for making sure that you have all the URLs and links near you.

The chapters are short and divided into parts to emphasize on the concept and deliver a message; which it does well. Although occasionally he steps aside and starts explaining about various holidays and the experience. Make sure that doesn’t get you distracted from absorbing what he is actually trying to say.

What Should You Know Before You Read

This book might not be for everyone out there. If you are a strong believer of ‘only hard-work pays’; then reading this book might not suit you well. If you haven’t heard of the following terms, then I’d suggest you to avoid reading this book.

• Google
• Google Ads
• Outsourcing
• E Commerce

On the other hand, its better if you know well about each of the above list before you start off with the book.

The book assumes that you have a fair understanding of how web works, and how various commercial websites function (not technically although).

Implementability

The most important thing you would want to know about a book; is it implementable? In the case of this book, I’d say it might not be implemented by everyone out there. Of course there are many lessons to be drawn out of the book that can be implemented right away, but everything the author asks you to do at the end of the chapter can be performed by anyone reading the book (provided he is willing to). Some lessons of the book will require you to invest money at some places; where many would feel uncomfortable; but it is as said earlier, left to the reader to follow or to not.

As a proof of people who have followed his methodology and succeeded; Timothy Ferris has maintained a blog section of ‘Case Studies’ where all the success stories have been listed. Its a wonder to see so many varied and totally different stories listed up which are mostly remotely based on the 4HWW idea. You can draw a simple conclusion that it actually works.

Most of the lessons in the book will teach you the ways you can reduce the time that you spend working on the office stuff, and yet be productive to the same levels that you achieve after working for around 10 hours each day. He also shows you that you don’t have to be bound to the cubicle in order to make a difference in your job.

What About Me?

I am following his time management lessons, and they have definitely benefited me. I have also been following his outsourcing lessons and it has definitely paid out well till date. I’m still to try the ‘investment’ part that I talked about earlier.

All in all, this book is a must read for anyone who wants to bring in a difference in his/her life without having to step out of the cubicle.

By now you already know why you shouldn’t be buying this book; but for those who are willing to buy;

Get yourself a copy from Flipkart (heck! They home deliver and offer Cash On Delivery!)

Popularity: 23% [?]

It was around 10:00 AM today morning, and I had just finished my breakfast and tea, and was walking down the street to my home in dirty socks and shoes, and a sweaty tee and short having been tired from the morning workout; that I noticed a Grey Scorpio, with a box and a long rod on top of it; and a small hexagonal box placed on the end of the rod and I could very easily make out the lenses nicely fit inside a circular hole on each face of the hexagon. It took me around 5 seconds to realize that it was Google streetview car; I although wonder that there was no label or a banner that said the car was Google’s.

When the Google street view does come, Search for (12.963056,77.657717) and you’ll find me standing there and wondering .. I even suggest you to dressed properly for few days, and take a 10 mins walk every day in the morning so that you get captured by a Google Street View Car .. Don’t you think you’ll go down in history.. just for a while this way

Popularity: 41% [?]

Ok. Since a few days I had been thinking of a few things that were done by me many a times which were totally idiotic, more idiotic is the fact that I repeated it. So the reason I’m writing this is to find a few more idiots like me who must have done these at least once. Now count as to how many you have done from the following and rank yourself for 10 in the comments.

Read more →

Popularity: 43% [?]

Hey guys,

Since two days I had been struggling with this crappy virus, and for now I feel I might have fixed the problem, and I’m able to run firefox. The steps are quite simple, so follow if you can

1) Run %temp% and delete all files.

2) Install NOD 32 latest version*, and run the scan for Operating Memory and the Windows Installation Drive.

3) It should delete the C:\Windows\Pifex32.inf file (may be the filename might vary and I’m not sure about it, do comment). And if it does not, find out manually and delete it.

4) Basically the virus is attached to a service called services.exe (ironic!) and Mozilla firefox doesn’t work even if  you run it with the explorer.exe ended.

5) Fire up the firefox, and it should run normally (No need to reinstall if you haven’t done it already).

Additionally -> Try searching for the entries that were discussed in the previous post and if you find it, delete it.

That is sufficient to bend the bug. For now I’m not having any recurring problem from that virus. So I feel I’ve fixed the issue. Do comment guys, I’ll update the post accordingly. Share this with your friends so that they don’t start reinstalling their firefox.

* You know where to get the NOD32 Right?

Popularity: 49% [?]