“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” [The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993] Steve Jobs.

What an absolute legend! Steve Jobs was successful, not because he chased money, or a big business, he did not chase either fame nor money. Steve Jobs was hotly in pursuit of fulfilling his life potential. What happened as a result of that has impacted every household on the face on the planet.

More qualified people will write historical, accurate, detailed and inspiring blogs about Steve Jobs and I don’t feel a need to replicate them neither do I want to not do Steve Jobs justice. All I want to say is that Steve Jobs died at the age of 56 with the knowledge that his presence on earth contributed something powerful.

This is something that should inspire us all – we life life, once.

R.I.P Steve Jobs.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” Steve Jobs 1995

I have recently come across crowdcube.com, a UK based company that enables the public to invest in new businesses. Entrepreneurs upload their pitch on the platform explaining their business idea , how much money they need and what they are prepared to offer in return.  The public can then look at the investments available and decide whether they want to invest.

There are a heap of US versions of these ideas that have been around for awhile, the most famous being Kickstarter. I really do think these sites are really positive for entrepreneurs for the following reason:

1) Secure necessary funding. Ok, so it’s an obvious one! But, I have been in the situation where I require funding for an idea. I have sought investment from friends and I have also been on an accelerator programme that has enabled me to pitch to very wealthy investors. Nevertheless, in today’s financial age, investment is a struggle and further potential options to secure funding could be seriously fruitful. What’s more, small amounts of investment by a large number of people helps investment to become more feasible and possible as it is spread.

2) Develop a committed group of supporters. Shouting about your business idea to anyone who will listen, is vital, the more people who hear about your idea then the more you have a chance of people following you and supporting your idea. If a business can gain a number of ‘champions’ who will shout about the business on your behalf, before launch then this helps increase the chance of business success.

3) Reach potential ‘helpers’. Sharing your business through the likes of crowdcube really helps you to find like minded people who not only share your vision but who also have the vital skills that you need in order to make the business happen.

4) Provides a secure testing environment. I have had business ideas that I should not have launched. At the time I thought they were the best ideas in the world, naively and with the best of intentions. However, retrospectively, these ideas where not so good. If I had placed these ideas on the likes of crowdcube.com it would have enabled me to gauge feedback and wisdom from my potential customers and develop the business idea accordingly. This all important insight may have resulted in me not launching these businesses which could have saved a lot of pain, heartache and finances.

The nature of my first business, Tribewanted.com, was essentially crowd funded. Members of the public paid for their time on the island up front and it was this cash that was used in order to propel the business forward. We received a lot of criticism for this which left people wondering whether the whole thing was a scam. At the time, if Crowdcube existed I would have sought investors on such a platform. I remember, at the time, looking for a UK equivalent.

Crowdcube creates a safe environment for potential investors, it provides the credibility required to bring about the trust in order to invest and, if the full amount of investment is not raised then no money is taken from the investors accounts. Perfect.

One business has already secure 100% of their £75,000 required investment and you can read more about Bubble & Balm here. The only negative is that there are not a heap of businesses who are using the site yet but I am watching and waiting and when the right business comes along I shall invest, I shall become a ‘champion’ of the idea, I will offer my skills to help and I will tell you all about it right on this blog!

So, go take a look at crowdcube.com and if you invest in a business idea – let me know!

Yesterday I mentioned that I frequently put up #startup on Twitter with a call for anyone working on a startup to contact me, purely because I love to see what is going on. Well, after that blog went up I was contacted by entrepreneur Tom Packer. Tom is someone who I have known for awhile, a creative web programmer who has come up with some great ideas, some that have been great ideas but have struggled to take off. However, Tom let me know about an idea he launched and created at the weekend, bktrack.com which I love!

Bktrack is a website that enables you to see images of key moments in the world, in whatever year you choose to want to see. You may look at the year you were born, the year you got married, the year your parents met – whatever tear you choose. Bktrack is a crowd sourced idea meaning that it is calling up on the public to upload images of key moments of throughout the years.

I really like the idea, it is a sort of cross between instagr.am and wiki that has huge potential. There are many ways to monetize this site and, indeed, Tom has let me in on a few of these ideas. Some ideas that I could imagine include – brand sponsorship of brands key moments, advertising, merchandise around specific years and timelines such as T-shirts and posters and stuff. There are endless possibilities for development here from launching personal timelines, group timelines, being able to post your images on your blog and website etc. It is just a really  cool idea.

Of course, the success of this business depends on the public uploading images so, head over to bktrack.com and get involved!

Like Bktrack? Hate it? Thinking of ways it could be improved? Post your comments I would love to hear!

Congratulations to Tom, cannot wait to see where this goes!

Recently I have started to throw out the following question on Twitter: Who is working on a #startup today? I would love to hear about it!. It’s awesome – people search for the #startup and so I get some pretty cool responses from people all over the world who are working on the ‘next big thing’. So, I decided to write a blog about the one’s that particularly catch my attention.

First up we have, payumi.com. It’s amazingly simple, this is a website for people who need to collect money from groups of people. I remember at Uni, in a shared house and whenever the time came to pay the bills it was always a pain to get money off housemates as individuals wrestled to keep as much beer money as possible! Of course the same situation occurs with the likes of mother groups, children’s activities like dance or football, holidays, for example. The list is endless.

All you have to do is set up an account, send payment reminders and the money will come straight into your paypal account.

I think it is an absolutely genius idea and has heaps of potential. The only question swirling through my mind is what the difference is between this site and simply using your paypal account in order to make a payment request? If there is absolutely no difference it almost makes the site redundant. I cannot even begin to describe how much I want there to be a massive difference. I will ask the payumi team directly on their twitter account @payumicom and let you know what they say. I will post an update as soon as I have one!

Watch this very powerful talk by Steve Jobs on ‘How to live before you die’ – this is an incredibly powerful piece of footage. Get inspired.

As many of you know I am all giveaway crazy at the moment because of the launch of my new start up Big American Giveaway. Whilst researching today I came across a couple who are giving away an ipad in order to help raise money to adopt a child. The ipad bit is irrelevant, but the story, the journey and the passion is quite exciting.

The Tucker family, a white, middle-class, Christian all American family have launched a website Subtracting by Adding in order to raise money to help adopt a child from Taiwan. The introduction that I have just given could sound quite negative, the Tucker family already have two biological children and it could easily sound like ‘White middle class Christian super-hero couple save the day’. But, you know what, that is exactly what it is and I would love to see more couples think about adoption.

One of the comments that the family have put on their website is a comment that I wholeheartedly believe in – they have two biological children and, there are heaps of children around the world without a family so why not provide a loving family for one of them. What a great sentiment!

I have seen, first hand, the sadness of children living without families in orphanages. Many orphanages do an incredible job and fair play to them. Nevertheless, children were built to be loved, to have the loving support of a family and they were created to bloom in such an environment. I will never forget time that I have spent in Kenya. I was in a boys orphanage talking to the children about how they are unique, they are individual, they exist for a very special purpose and, even without natural families they are very much loved. As I ended my talk the children came forward, they wanted to be hugged! As a small 5 year old boy wrapped his arms around my legs, he would not let go. This little boy could not speak a word of English and I have never been fluent in Swahili, but, nevertheless, we had shared an incredible moment. Not only was this orphaned boy loved, but, so was I. Needless to say, I was in tears!

The Tuckers’ goal of adopting a child, ‘Cambell’ from Taiwan is a powerful example of how many other couples could reach out and change lives of young children around the world. I remember reading a book on the work of Tearfund, a Christian organisation and one of the titles of the chapters seriously stood out, “They can’t eat prayer”.

Whether we are of a religious background or not, the sentiment is the same. We can look on in despair at those who are less fortunate, who need help, who struggle to survive or who need a little bit of love and we wish them all the best, “they can’t eat wishes”.

Well done and congratulations to the Tucker family, we are right behind you. May your example be a shining one, to many.

I had a conversation with a friends Mum this weekend, and, don’t get me wrong, I am not going all ‘religious’ on you, but I think that it is a great shame that the UK has moved away from it’s Christian foundations. Please allow me to explain why.

We live in a greed obsessed society. We want what we cannot afford to have and, as we have seen, those who cannot afford their ‘wants’ resort to other means to ensure that they get them. We loot, whether it is young people on the streets or MP’s who go against the rules that they created in order to make more money. Our marketing is highly consumerised (my spell check tells me that no such word exists but please go with it). If we are not happy with our partner we trade them in for another model, or many have their cake and eat it. Family values have been exchanged for gang alliance. The religion that we worship is the football team that we support. Our nation is fame hungry. We update our Twitter and Facebook status’ in the belief that ‘my story’ is the only story that needs to be heard.

Let’s face it, in many ways, collectively, we have become immoral. Not only are we becoming immoral but our collective moral conscience is slowly being worn down.

Of course, I am not perfect, I am by no means a saint. It would be easy to read this post and agree that ‘they’ are like that. However, I am a firm believer that, wrongly, our morals are flexible when it comes to our own self interests.

So, back to religion. I am not saying that in an age before ours, when the accepted behavior was that families attended Church, was a perfect world. It wasn’t. But there is something about being reminded of good Christian values that reminds us as individuals that we are part of a whole, that the world does not revolve around ‘me’ and our outlook on life changes.

Basic Christian values can be exchanged for a ‘good’ moral code. Gluttony, greed, selfish ambition, pride, jealousy, envy are all common traits in today’s society. However, at least hearing about Christian values, being reminded of them by family, at Church, at school provides our minds with a moral ‘check’, a simple reminder of the way that we should live our lives.

We do not have to subscribe to the whole package. The whole Christian story is not one that we have to believe in, however, at a very basic level, whether purely as a man who existed or as a character in a book, the person of Jesus maintained a life-style that we would all benefit to follow both personally and as a collective.

I have spent some time in some poor countries, Kenya and Fiji, whose residents still remind each other of basic Christian values and, in all honesty, they are seriously humble places to live. I have met people who have nothing, but what they have they would not hesitate to share. I have been involved in business deals (with Tribewanted) where an individuals word is the basis of an agreed contract. I have seen, first hand, communities where they consider each of their children as their own. There is no selfish attitude, only an attitude of greatfulness and otherness.

I know reading this post, people will comment – why does it have to be Christian and not other religious beliefs. I know that there are many perceived flaws in what I am saying because, as individuals, we now have an in-built intolerance to anything relating to ‘God’.

I don’t have all the answers and, in no way, am I suggesting that we should all be going to church on a Sunday morning. I just merely believe that or moral framework has suffered in direct correlation towards a decline in our attitude towards the church and our engagement with anything ‘christian’.

Something has to change, for the sake of individuals, communities and generations to come. If our moral code only reduces, where do we end up?

Please do feel free to comment, add your thoughts, agree, disagree in the comment section below. It would be great to hear, listen, learn!

War fatigue. Charity fatigue. Famine fatigue. Compassion fatigue. Just like every other fatigue that is out there we can suffer from rioting fatigue. The images have been spread far and wide, I am currently in Australia where the rioting has been branded ‘civil unrest’. I have contacts in America who thought I was back in London and emailed to see if I was okay. We have had open letters to David Cameron’s parents. We have had the comedy of  rioters vs photoshop. We have had the the angel volunteers via riotcleanup. We have had those who are raising money for those who want to raise money for something nice for Ashraf and those who want to Keep Aaron Cutting. So many people, have said so much that it is easy just to start to switch off but, seriously, what the hell is going on?

Like many I have heard the racist arguments referring to rioters as “ethnic dole-ite scum” (when a millionaire’s daughter and a school mentor got arrested for looting). I have equally read Nina Power’s Guardian article entitled, ‘There is a context to London’s riots that can’t be ignored‘.  So much has been said and, in all honesty, there is an element of truth in most of it as people speak from their own perspective.

We can hunt these kids down and we can lock them up but, in my opinion, this will cause a greater number of young people to rise up en-mass with an even bigger revolt. Maybe not this week, or next week, but at some point. I have heard many comments referring to consumerism and greed and how are young people want what they can’t have or can’t afford as a symbol of status and so they take it. Perhaps it is even the taking of the object that adds to the status. Nevertheless, in my opinion there is this deep, deep feeling of dissatisfaction, of emptiness, a lack of vision, a lack of understanding of worth and potential.

It took a very personal, powerful event in my life for me to realise that we ‘live life, once’. I truly believe that if we can grasp the reality of the concept that we live this life only once then we will realise that our potential knows no bounds. This potential is not based upon what we have or have not got. Our potential is not based upon where we were educated, our upbringing or the mistakes that our parents or even government may have made. But when we grasp the reality of the fact that we are on planet earth, merely once – dreams are within our reach, ambition is endless and our potential is unlimited.

Imagine a country in which the very same young people who put effort, energy, attention, drive and focus into rioting and looting placed the same amount of energy and dedication into the discovery of their potential. We would see new businesses, new opportunities, new employment, new world records, new sports champions, new olympic hopefuls and on and on.

Of course these are my thoughts, based upon my belief of what could truly happen if understood that we are not futile but grasp the power of our potential with both hands and not stop. I don’t know how we get there, I don’t know how we educate, how re-educate, from the ground up. These things I don’t know.

The one thing that I do know is that humanity has been created with awesome potential and if we could just tap into that, in these young people then something damn well powerful could take place.

Remember my blog post about Kyle MacDonald’s Storebuyout.com  Well, I and many others received the following email this week:

Here’s a video of a chat we had with Hercules.

The original sales receipt is currently being auctioned to help buy
Hercules the store of his dreams.  Please spread the word!
http://cgi.ebay.com/140586078012#ht_1892wt_1186

have fun,

Kyle

So, currently the auction stands at $1,025 with the reserve not met. I can’t wait to see what happens. Whether this receipt is sold for heaps or it isn’t I love Kyle’s approach to the world and there is heaps to learn from him so check out www.storebuyout.com and get learning!

We all know Alex Tew, in fact, many of us are green with envy whenever his name is mentioned. Alex Tew is the guy who created milliondollarhomepage and made a million dollars in the process. Alex has also had a number of other viral successes including donothingfor2minutes.com

What some of you may or may not know is that Alex Tew has moved to American to become Product Manager of Monkey Inferno which, according to it’s website is a ‘place where we dream up cool internet projects, develop them, nurture them into successful businesses’. How cool?!

But there is more, Monkey Inferno, is self-funded by Michael and Xochi Birch who sold Bebo in 2008 for a cool $850million! Basically, what this means is that Monkey Inferno can a) never go bust and will b) never need investment.

Alex Tew is a genuinely nice guy who dreams up big ideas and ensures that they happen in practice. I cannot think of a more perfect fit for Alex to be working with Monkey Inferno. A massive congratulations to you Alex!

I am pretty sure that Alex Tew + Monkey Inferno will = a shit load of cool stuff!

All of the above, must be true, it is on Alex’s Twitter bio: @tewy