Take a look at your Twitter feed for one minute and you will notice that some of the hottest topics today are “social media” and “personal branding”. Everyone and their grandmothers are looking to promote themselves or their products through social media channels these days. The problem is the majority of these people tweet a few times, create a new Facebook Page and get discouraged when only their friends support the cause.  There is a better way!

Read more on How to Systematize Your Personal Branding Using Social Media…

As we wrap up 2009, I want to thank every single one of you for reading this blog. The response has been completely humbling and I have made some tremendous connections in the process. I have had the chance to interview a massive inspiration in Gary Vaynerchuk and just recently interviewed Mike Michalowicz (the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur).

富不过三代 (fu bu guo san dai) Is a saying that has been stuck in my head for quite a while (since my first reading of The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman to be precise). The translation closely works out to “Wealth does not surpass three generations”. The theory is simple; The first generation has their nose to the grindstone and earns a killing, the second generation holds it all together by saving it, and the third pisses it all away.

If there is one adage you will hear over and over again from today’s successful online entrepreneurs, it’s this: build an e-mail list! You will hear this drum beat so often because it holds the clear ring of truth.

Building an e-mail list has never been more critical to online success. Especially when considering the current economic climate, building a list provides you with a qualified target audience who already understands what you are offering and who have already agreed to either purchase or download something from you for in the past.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a big Batman fan. I consider him a true social entrepreneur… but that’s another blog post. What makes Batman, Batman in my opinion is his utility belt. Batman without his utility belt is just a guy in a rubber suit (kind of weird, huh?). His utility belt is what helps him make the most of tough situations and creates opportunities for him to succeed.

Read more on The Entrepreneur’s Utility Belt…

It was Henry Ford who said, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Growing up in this competitive world, the majority of us were taught from a very young age that failure is bad and that we need to succeed in everything we do. Way too many people walk around this place thinking business is all cupcakes and candy canes. You may have been blindfolded to be thinking that failure is not an essential part of success and I’m here to set the record straight. I’ve started (and successfully failed) two companies already, and I might possibly have a third on the way. Am I to believe that I should just give up and that it was all for nothing, and should probably not do it ever again? NO! Failure is not bad. In fact, in my circumstances failure is a blessing and I’m going to tell you why.

There’s a business saying that goes “100% of nothing is nothing.” Although it may sound so simple that it almost sounds stupid, it’s all a matter of putting things into perspective. To put it another way, I heard a similar phrase since I first started writing this post: “do you want to have a slice of the watermelon or the entire grape?” Make more sense now?

I learned this the hard way, and that’s why I’m so inclined to share this mentality with others who come after me…or just want to catch up with me. I spent almost eight months being extremely tight-lipped about my “brilliant” idea. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t out there already, and I felt that everyone would jump on it if I let them in. Well, my scarcity mindset had me paralyzed with fear and growth and development of my company suffered severely.

There are four words in the English language, that when structured in the correct order, could be one of the biggest limiting beliefs for an entrepreneur. When I hear someone say these words, I sometimes cringe because I can tell opportunities just blow this person by. These four words form the saying, “I can’t afford it”. I must preface by saying, it is not your fault if you were taught to use these atrocious words. They stem from your financial blueprint.

There is a good chance that we all look back on this post two years from now and realize that this is where the legacy began. This is where Unstrapp’d started. Clearly, I remember the day I tested the waters of blogging. It was back on December 30, 2008 and I had no clue about what I was getting into. For me, it was a way for me to tell some stories of the many stupid mistakes I’ve made in business in which I was previously too embarrassed to talk about.