Once you have locked down a concept for your business, done your research on costs, markets, location, competition, etc. and secured yourself a sweet loan, you’re ready to open shop right? No!

You need licenses and permits. Which ones? Depends. What is required is highly dependent on the type of business you have and where the business is located. CalGold is a great resource in finding some of the many many licenses and permits that are required for your business. I say some, because some of the websites CalGold leads you to are not current or available. If your particular Federal, State, County, City/Town/Municipality info is not available through the CalGold site, you gotta start calling and waiting to talk to someone in the appropriate government office that can give you the answers you need.

…if you look hard enough.  Or make your own door.

Brian Acton was a software engineer that used to work at Yahoo and Apple.  When he applied to Twitter and Facebook, they both said no.  

So he teamed up with a fellow former Yahoo engineer to create the cloud-based messaging app, WhatsApp.

This week, Facebook agreed to buy WhatsApp for $16 billion.

Not a bad change in careers.

You can read the rest of the article Forbes.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” – Steve Jobs

Post on TED among many many other great talks.

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Ringing in the New Year with a resolution isn’t new. However, sometimes the mental hurdle of foreseeing a grand accomplishment is enough to deter even starting. By focusing on daily steps in the direction of the ultimate goal, one can increase their chances of success.

Great repost on Lifehacker (a great website in itself) about how large goals can be accomplished by taking small steps everyday. Everyday.

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According to the American Psychological Association, the main difference between high-achievers and everyone is grit.

What is grit? The article describes grit as “the disposition to pursue very long-term goals with passion and perseverance, sustained over time.”

This can be years or decades. Getting back up after failing over and over gain. Consistently showing up to take your beatings until you can start dishing out your own.

Fortunately, grit isn’t just inherent to some and not to others.  To increase your grit, you need to focus on three things:

1)  Optimism and a growth mindset

2)  Passion about what you’re working on

3)  Ignore the costs incurred while working hard

The full article can be found here.

Something as simple as a t-shirt is truly a feat of modern technology and demonstrates the reaches of a global economy.

A mini-documentary from NPR’s Planet Money, looks at the entire, remarkable process behind the unremarkable t-shirt. The mini-doc is divided into 5 parts: Cotton, Machines, People, Boxes, and You. A fascinating and sometimes difficult look into the people and industries involved in this ubiquitous product.

According to internet analytics firm comScore online retail sales in 2013 Black Friday topped $1.2 billion. This is a 15% increase over 2012 online Black Friday sales.

Looks like Black Friday and Cyber Monday is merging into Cyber Weekend and possibly “Cyber No-cember”