In her article Getting Over Overwhelm [from 2002, posted on her site], Tama J. Kieves says as a “newbie” publisher she was “devouring everything in sight on marketing, publicity, increasing sales, touching the hems of Oprah, and the like. I’ve read the books on it, subscribed to on-line newsletters, attended local publishing groups, listened to [...]

“Branding is one hot topic, although it is wildly misunderstood. To make things even more confusing, branding is often tossed in the same basket as marketing which makes its application to an entrepreneur or sole-practitioner even more unclear.
“To help you gain more brand-worthy clarity, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Am I really passionate about what [...]

Thomas Paine’s 18th-Century Thoughts on The Entrepreneurial Dream
“I do not choose to be a common person.
It is my right to be uncommon—if I can.
I seek opportunity—not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk, to dream and to [...]

Jovovich-Hawk is the fashion design partnership of model, actress, musician Milla Jovovich and former model Carmen Hawk. Their label is sold in 100 stores, including Barneys New York, Nordstrom, Fred Segal and Harvey Nichols, and worn by stars including Michelle Williams and Kate Bosworth.
[photo: Jovovich on the cover of the May 2006 issue of C [...]

Coach, trainer, writer, speaker Suzanne Falter Barns says finding purpose is crucial for living well and working productively and passionately.
“Knowing your Soul Purpose can mean the difference between slogging off to a ho-hum office to do ho-hum work every day, and rising every morning with a fire in your belly, full of happiness and eager [...]

Flower Films was founded in 1994 by Drew Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen, when Drew was 19. Their first production was Never Been Kissed (1999), followed by Charlie’s Angels, Donnie Darko and others.
In a Vogue magazine interview [Feb 2006], Barrymore commented, “I knew what our intentions were, but they had nothing to do with success. Doesn’t [...]

Graphic designer Susan Kirkland, author of the book Start and Run a Creative Services Business, notes that many “big fish” companies now “dip lower into the food chain to overcome business losses” and take on the “sort of jobs one person shops thrive on.”
She provides some tips that can help any sort of small business [...]

In her article 10 Steps to Escape the Job World and Create the Life You Really Want, “Off the beaten path career counselor” Valerie Young, PhD points out a number of aspects of crafting a successful life and vocation.
She writes, “It’s one of those things that is worth repeating - life is all too short. [...]

In her article Why I Will Never Have a Job, Barbara J. Winter lists many benefits of a jobless, entrepreneurial life, including these:
Freedom. Now more than ever our freedom is threatened. Participating in one of our greatest freedoms, the free enterprise system, is standing up for this valuable gift. People who take freedom for granted [...]

Even huge projects proceed in discrete, and often relatively small, steps. It can help productivity and sanity to keep our main attention there.
Jim Rohn [photo] notes in his article Facing The Enemies Within, that no matter what we are trying to accomplish, “whether it’s writing a book, climbing a mountain, or painting a house the [...]

Being an entrepreneur is fundamentally a creative venture
Michael Angier [left] of Success Networks International, among other leaders, thinks we are living in a period with continual opportunities to develop new ventures.
In his article Innovation: Ideas Are Cheap - But Extremely Valuable, Angier writes, “I believe the world is entering a time of unprecedented innovation. We’re [...]

new book: 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life
Editor David Riklan, Founder and President of SelfGrowth.com:
I realized that achieving success can be accomplished by learning from the Masters — those who have blazed the trail for others to follow. It was clearly evident that if these experts had already achieved financial success, wealth and were [...]

Being seduced by the comfort of routine and the known is one of the ways we self-limit and avoid productive risk.

In his book on personal development and achievement, Unhypnosis, Steve Taubman writes that some people experience “atrophy of imagination” from a “continued repetition of an unsatisfactory life script… a rut is a grave with the [...]