Financial IQ: 12 success secrets of Apple's Steve Jobs

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Great success tips from Steve Jobs!!


Steve Jobs has personified capitalism at its finest, due to his customer-focused excellence, his passion for business beyond just earning money and for his contributions to world progress. I’m a loyal user of the Macbook Air and iPod Touch and love his products.


US communications coach Carmine Gallo recently authored a new book, The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, based on three decades of interviews and research on Apple employees, analysts and also the ideas of Jobs himself. According to him, there are seven success principles behind the Steve Jobs phenomenon, which I am sharing here. I added five more success principles at the end, culled from the analysis of former Apple CEO John Sculley.


Principle 1: Do what you love. 


Principle 2: Put a dent in the universe.


Principle 3: Kick-start your brain. 


Principle 4: Sell dreams, not products. 


Principle 5: Say no to 1,000 things. 


Principle 6: Create insanely great experiences. 


Principle 7: Master the message. 


Principle 8: Perfectionism. 


Principle 9: Hire the best. 


Principle 10: Sweat the details. 


Principle 11: Keep it small. 


Principle 12: Customer experience. 


As shown in Steve Job’s remarkable life as a successful capitalist, the true and ultimate test of business success is not just big profits but customer satisfaction.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=652827&publicationSubCategoryId=82

Related articles

• Steve Jobs of Apple gives his Success Tips (archian.wordpress.com)

Financial IQ: Used Car Selling Safety Tips

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There are a lot of good deals in buying used cars.  You can get as much as 30% savings when buying a 12-months used car, instead of buying a brand new one.


One of my favorite ways to dispose of vehicles is to sell them after only a few years of use, so that I can use the money to buy a new vehicle. The front-page news in recent weeks on grizzly murders of used car traders is shocking to people like me now planning to sell my Innova and Revo vans in order to buy new vehicles.


Here are some used car trading tips:


• When contacted by buyers by phone or through the Internet, always make the effort to get their address or their telephone numbers that you can call back and verify to see whether they are who they claim they are. Checking their names on Facebook or other social sites would be helpful.


• When meeting them at your house, always get some people to witness the meeting. Although having their faces captured on a CCTV camera is ideal — if you have one — getting someone to photograph them secretly during the meeting would do no harm (It is your house anyway). While doing so would make you look paranoid, it is better to be paranoid than dead. While they are inspecting the car, you can take pictures of them, doing so by explaining that you are just taking picture of a car you hate to miss.


• When they want to do a test drive, insist that they leave government identification cards like driver’s license, SSS, PhilHealth, gun license and other cards that cannot be faked. If they come by car, insist they leave it behind and check if it is really registered under their name and not a stolen one. If they come by two, ask one of them to stay in your place.


• The test drive should only be done within your subdivision or places you are familiar with. These must be places where people abound. Watch out if there are vehicles following you. Always do the test drive at daytime. Meeting them at night or outside your home is out of the question except if you are acquainted with them.


• If you really must meet them outside your house, do so in a place you know has CCTV cameras and have a companion in a back-up car take their pictures (if the glasses of your backup car is tinted). Always bring a back-up car to tag you along during the test drive and make them aware you are bringing one. Again, this is a paranoid act, but better paranoid than sorry.


• Lastly, in these dangerous times and if you have a choice, sell your cars to friends and acquaintances or through referrals from them; and not to total strangers to lessen the exposure and risk. We always tell clients that in the used car business, it is the trust that matters more than the cars.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=650730&publicationSubCategoryId=82

Financial IQ: Tips for Luxury Car Owners & Car Drivers

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Nice tips.  Always keep our cool even if there are times it is challenging... :)


How do we ordinary citizens with or even without cars survive Metro Manila’s streets in the face of daily and chaotic traffic jams, plus a seeming crime wave in recent weeks ranging from carjacking to grizzly murders of car dealers?


Here are a few driving tips for car owners and drivers from the 19-year-old Filipino-Swiss racer Marlon Stockinger, who is the first-ever Filipino to win a Formula race in Europe by placing 8th in the Formula Renault UK 2010. He was also Asian Karting Champion in 2006 and Formula BMW Pacific Scholarship Winner in 2008. Here are tips that Stockinger shared at Kyss Bar in Makati during the Jan. 20 launch party of Inside Showbiz magazine:


• It is best to drive by listening to music, for better focus and concentration whether in Europe’s race tracks or Metro Manila’s jungle of streets.


• To be good in driving, whether as a Formula racer or ordinary driver, be physically fit with regular exercise, sufficient sleep and a good balanced diet. Marlon Stockinger has three European coaches and trainers on racing and physical fitness from England, Austria and Germany.


• Keep a low profile, if obviously you have a very nice car.


• For better safety, use tinted car windows.


• Try to avoid those areas of Metro Manila where carnappings are rampant, or if you happen to be there, be careful with your vehicle.


• Always drive very carefully in Metro Manila, because driving here is a bit crazy. People cut you off so often. There are so many Formula 1 prospects in Metro Manila, especially the bus drivers.


• Pre-owned or used cars are okay, especially for a first car.

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=650730&publicationSubCategoryId=82