Reading biographies

I read a lot of self-development books especially in the areas of developing thinking as a skill. Although whenever I visit bookstores, novels and biographies of interesting people are also prominently on display.

The only biography I took fascination in reading was that of Queen Elizabeth I. Although it was written from a context of her being a CEO (Queen Elizabeth I: CEO). In my stock pile of unread books include Napoleon's Glance (the secret of strategy - learning from Napoleon Bonaparte) and Alexander the Great (art of strategy).

Although in modern times, politicians, business leaders, artists, sport coaches, and athletes have become famous subjects for biographies too.

One list that was brought to my attention is the best list of sports books that features stories of various famous athletes. I think a lot of prominent sports personalities, seeing how competitive they are, naturally have interesting backgrounds in life.

North Carolina male basketball Roy William's new book is just one of the many interesting biography books that can be read out there. Readers attracted to it are those aspiring to play in these teams and I guess the fans who frequent these games or place bets in sites like Sportsbook.

But if I will come up with my own list of sports biography related books that I want to read someday, it will likely include:

1. Open: An Autobiography (Andre Agassi)
2. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen (Christopher McDougall)
3. When the Game Was Ours (Larry Bird, Earvin Johnson Jr. Jackie MacMullan)
4. My Life Outside the Ring (Hulk Hogan)
5. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
6. Ocho Cinco: What Football and Life Have Thrown My Way (Chad Ochocinco)
7. The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds
8. Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame Pitcher & a Hall of Fame Hitter Talk about How the Game is Played
9. Playing With Fire (Theo Fleury with Kirstie McLellan Day)
10. Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson

Janette Toral - My 10 Maven Secrets

In the DigitalFilipino Club, I am quite proud on the kind of members that I have been able to attract. I knew right from the start that it is a service offering not meant for everyone.

Entrepreneur Anton Diaz is one of them. He joined when he was still working for a multinational entity and recalled the first eyeball he attended at the Bureau of Internal Revenue (organized a briefing on taxation for freelancers) where I encouraged him to organize food trips for his readers.

I believe that what makes a community great is how each and every member has transformed through the years. Moreso, how you rise above the various challenges and remain supportive - seeing things from a bigger picture, rather than be influenced by emotions-at-the-moment.

This coming October 29, I will be guesting at Anton's Maven Secrets class. Been planning to blog about it and Anton's e-mail on the questions to be asked gave the push needed to make this post. So here are my notes.

1. Can you give a background about yourself? What do you do exactly?

I'm a person who wears different hats. But I strive to become an effective maven, connector, and salesman altogether based on Malcolm Gladwell's defintion in the book Tipping Point:

• Share knowledge, become a catalyst, and let others tinker it further to their own advantage.
• Connect people who don't know each other so that they can collaborate through the club.
• Sell ideas and projects to people "eventually" by first supporting or sustaining it personally.

2. How did you get started? What are your humble beginnings?

Prior to 1997, I was just enjoying life as a yuppie and had my own share of excesses. While organizing the Internet Commerce Expo 97 (ICE '97), I read a U.S. White House paper that in order for e-commerce to thrive, private sector must take the lead. Sounded off the idea in the PH-ISP mailing list that eventually paved the way for a tribe to be created, that was the Philippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS).

Almost at full time capacity back then lobbying for the passage of the Y2K Law and E-Commerce Law. Freelance writing gigs (local and international) and small consulting projects kept me sustained.

Eventually, I started DigitalFilipino.com in 1999 and used it as a means to share e-commerce information. As I stepped down in 2002 as head of PICS, got more focused into research writing and was speaking in various international events every month up to 2003.

Realized that writing research reports can be hard to sustain while maintaining independence. That is where the idea of DigitalFilipino Club got started and was launched last December 25, 2003.

3. What are your lessons learned throughout your Maven journey?

• It is important that you take charge of your time and always self-assess whether there are other things that you begin to neglect.
• Health-wise, I've been fortunate. Only get into stuff that I will truly enjoy. Where the tasks at hand becomes a pleasurable experience rather than a burden.
• Never be afraid to experiment and fail. At times, what other folks sees as success were actually my failures (did not reach the goals originally targeted). Nevertheless, I thrive and gradually become better because of it.

4. What do you think are the critical success factors in your success?

• Focus on benefits to be given rather than gain.
  Benefits in the club are always designed to exceed the price paid for by club members.
• Challenge the status quo and be a market disruptor.
  This I carry out especially whenever I hear players being compared to me or witnessing industry developments I don't like.
• Learn and share.
  I hardly keep what I learned to myself. Usually unloaded and shared immediately to others.
• Live a humble life.
  I continuously re-invest resources gained to items/services where there's substantive value.

5. What are the most difficult challenge you encountered? Is there a point that you almost gave up?

I haven't as changing perspective or approach always makes a big difference.

6. Can you share technical details about the setup of your website?

The DigitalFilipino.com Club site runs on a service offered by WebsiteWizard.

7. Where do you go from here? What are your vision 2-3 years from now?

I had been thinking about that for the past two weeks as to where will the DigitalFilipino Club go from here. In 2005, I was looking at Ecademy as a model and have already went beyond it in terms of service offerings to the club.

I already set my mind that from hereon to 2014, DigitalFilipino Club will evolve to become a TED-like community. The upcoming E-Commerce Summit this November 12 and 13 is a first step towards that direction.

8. Who are the people that helped you along the way?

The club members themselves have helped me along the way. By telling their concerns and wants, I took the challenge of coming up with new offerings to support them. In the process, whenever we have big projects, they are also there to lend a helping hand.

I never really had the benefit of having a mentor. But I have identified a set of change masters where some of the lessons learned, I have blogged here.

9. Why do you do what you do? What is your motivating force that keeps you going?

My experience in lobbying for legislations was empowering. It made me believe that everything is possible if you only set your mind to it. To make e-commerce grow in the country requires reaching out to as many people as possible, some in a passive manner while others more personal.

For as long as I see people growing and becoming e-commerce champions themselves, the advocacy shall continue.

10. What is your advice for future Internet mavens?

• Focus on the benefits that you can give.
• Don't over-hype, lie, over-sell, neither take advantage of the gullible. These actions not only harms you but all players in the industry.
• Keep your feet on the ground.
• Know your purpose in life.
• Keep learning.
• Be around sharp people to improve your thinking.

Competing using Free Business Models

I just finished reading Chris Anderson's latest book - Free: The Future of a Radical Price. It is a great follow-up to his book - The Long Tail and recomending it to anyone who conducts business online. It is also a valuable complement to readers of Seth Godin as their insight combined can be really explosive for entrepreneurs.

The timing was also just right as I've been doing my free experiments for quite sometime now observing how people respond to it.

(Click the mind map image for bigger view.)

Anderson cited four free models in the market today that includes (will mention some of the free experiments I've been doing as well):

1. Direct cost subsidies
Customer gets a free product by paying for something else.

Example: When the DigitalFilipino Club was first created, it was intended to be an exclusive online paid community. Later on, I started offering new services and made them free to club members (or special rate if they want more) such as our upcoming E-Commerce Summit, hands-on workshops, webinars, among others.

New club members or those walk-in during the training help subsidize the conduct and cost of the said activity. It also allows me to gain new club members further. This is important as I strive to have a long term relationship with members.

2. Three party market
Products, information, or services get distributed for free to anyone interested. A 3rd party comes into play providing revenue which in turn helps in cost recovery and otherwise.

Example: The monthly State of E-Commerce in the Philippines webinar is a 1-hour briefing where relevant developments in the field gets shared. Participants can attend the event for free and this is subsidized by the parties involved and later on by advertisers.

This is also the same case for most blogs, forums, podcast, and other forms of content that gets disseminated online for free where revenue is generated through advertising, affiliate programs, donations, and the like.

3. Freemium
A product or service that has a basic or free version. Members who want more can avail of the premium or paid version.

Example: Membership in the DigitalFilipino mailing list and social network is free where updates, articles, reports, and free events get organized from time to time in various parts of the country. Those who want more can opt to become a full-fledged club member.

4. Non-monetary
There are stuff that can be given away to people without necessarily asking for money in return now or even later on. This can include reputation points, karma, power or influence, and the likes.

Example: We have four annual events that recognizes various accomplishments such as the Philippine Schools Cyberfair, DigitalFilipino Social Networking Awards, DigitalFilipino Web Awards, and the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs. These are all done without asking the nominator, nominee, and winners for any mandatory fee. However, there is a lot of value in the recognition as the winners are actively used as case studies. During these events, empowerment of stakeholders, in a variety of roles, takes place.

Information wants to be free

The challenge for early players like me is the acceptance of the fact that the cost of producing and publishing knowledge is fast becoming cheaper than ever before. There are information still worth paying for but a growing number of Internet users wants to get them now and if possible - for free.

So to test what I learned from the book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, instead of charging a delegate fee outright to the DigitalFilipino E-Commerce Summit, I am making this free to club members and focus my efforts in boosting our membership base from 100 to 1000. Although non-club members can still join for a fee and sponsors are needed, I outsourced that part so I can focus on my experiment. We also put our past events on video and make them accessible for reference. Some publicly while others within the club members social network only.

The increasing number of Internet users and competitive players provides further pressure in reviewing my current business model and innovate to ensure that we will remain relevant, remarkable, and strong in the years to come.

So last September 2, this blog turned 8 years old while DigitalFilipino.com will turn 10 years old this September 17. We still have a long way to go but always thankful for all the blessings - starting by having readers like you. Thank you.

Becoming a Good Thinker through Change Masters

To become a change maker, Tony Buzan in his book Embracing Change cites having change masters as a must and is one of the 7 tools for transformation. Change masters are role models and mentors that acts as personal agents for change. Their insights and inspiration can help in managing personal change and achieve goals.

I use this blog to document lessons learned from authors and individuals that have one way or another influenced my thinking (hence you'll find in the sidebar "lessons learned from change masters). I never had the benefit of having a mentor. A lot of the survival skills I've learned to date were mostly gained from authors. Some of them are:

• B. Kim Barnes
• Chris Anderson
• Edward de Bono
• Jim Collins
• John Maxwell
• Karl Albrecht
• Leo Buscaglia
• Matthew Brauning
• Peter Drucker
• Philip Kotler
• Rhonda Bryne
• Seth Godin
• Sheila Glazov
• Stephen Covey
• Tim Sanders
• Tony Buzan

Although there are some that I haven't blogged to date as the skills learned when imparted may be misused and abused if the reader is not enlightened or matured enough.

In the book Thinking for a Change, John Maxwell explained the value of good thinking as it:

• Creates the foundation for good results.
  "Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results. Bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results." - James Allen
  
  "The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts." - John Locke
  
• Increases your potential.
  If people can keep growing in their thinking, they will constantly outgrow what they're doing, and their potential will always be off the charts.
  
• Produces more good thinking if one makes it a habit.
  "An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an invasion of ideas." - Victor Hugo. The more you engage in good thinking, the more good thoughts you will continue to think. It's like creating an army of ideas capable of achieving almost anything.

This blog transformed into a reflective thinking blog back in 2005 was a result of the said book as well.

There are 11 thinking skills that John Maxwell emphasized in that book which I will tackle in the weeks to come.

Most of the authors I've read constantly emphasizes the need to change one's thinking in order to reach your change maker potential. I feel fortunate that there are a good number of them who have shared their knowledge through books that we get to read, discern, try it out, and learn further.

Frequently Asked Questions on the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs 2009 Writing Project

Hi everyone. I thought of making this post as I have talked to a lot of people answering questions after the winners announcement.

Since the start of the writing project, I have corresponded with some of you through e-mail, have given information and clarification. With more than 200 writing project participants, I am sure there are more questions unanswered and I hope this post will give an opportunity for such an exchange.

Question #1: What was the intent of the writing project?

Answer:

To help promote new blogs/bloggers and put the spotlight on them. I hope the writing project, as it introduces new blogs, will give blog newbies the chance to shine and grow.

At the end of it, we celebrate and give recognition to those that were favored by writing project participants.

Question #2: Last August 8, you mentioned that the top 10 this year got the highest votes. How many exactly?

Answer:

1. Writing to Exhale (130)
2. Patay Gutom (120)
3. The Struggling Blogger (114)
4. Zorlone (112)
5. Father Blogger dot Com (99)
6. Kelvinonian Ideas 2.0 (91)
7. Tales from the Mom Side (88)
8. Adaphobic (76)
9. Lakwatsero (73)
10. Let's Go Sago! (69)

Question #3: Last August 8, you shared some sites that "if there were more than top 10" also deserves recognition. Which sites are these and how many votes they got?

Answer: If there were top 20, this would be the 11th to 20th:

11. Lifelots (68 votes)
12. Dear Bloggery (67 votes)
13. Good Times Manila (64 votes)
14. Video Chops (63 votes)
15. The Law of the Force (60 votes)
16. Millionaire Acts (53 votes)
17. Through the Focal Glass (50 votes)
18. It's All a Matter of Perspective (48 votes)
I Love / Hate America (48 votes)
19. Flair Candy (46 votes)
20. Numbrd (37 votes)

Question #4: What do you consider as legitimate blogs that can be used to submit an entry to this writing project?

Answer: For as long as the identity of the blog owner can be identified, it is considered as a valid blog and can be used to submit an entry for the writing project.

Question #5: Can a blogger nominate his or her own blog?

Answer: Yes.

Question #6: Are there restrictions on campaigning?

Answer: None.

Question #7: Are the writing project entries visible to everyone?

Answer: Yes. All submissions are made in the comments section of join the writing project page that anyone can view, check, and make their own tally.

Question #8: Is a voting page something that you can consider for next year?

Answer: Not at this time as this is a writing project rather than a popularity vote contest. It encourages bloggers to take a a stand by writing a post that states the blogs they find to be influential.

Question #9: Will you consider additional criteria next year other than a blog post submission to tally the top 10? This can include Alexa, PageRank, number of posts, number of comments, RSS subscriptions, etc.

Answer: Including additional criteria, in my observation, would require creation of categories. Also, a lot of the parameters can also be directly manipulated if a person knows how to do such. Unlike in a blog post where a person does it on their own desire, or responding to appeals, to come up with a post and cite their top 10.

Question #10: I noticed that you do not directly respond to attacks or criticisms. Why?

Answer: Monitoring the entries week after week gave me a big picture view on the politics happening while the writing project is ongoing. If the person giving the criticism or attack is a writing project participant that I have been constantly in touch with and suddenly lashes out, I observe and see if his issues are bigger than the writing project and me, and if the attacks are personal. If yes, will not respond if I have nothing personal against the person and if their anger is beyond my writing project scope. (still an e-mail and chat person)

In the end, these instances shows the best and worst in us. On the positive side, it will allow us to get to know each other better.

Feel free to post questions about the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs 2009 in the comment section and will reply as I update this post. If your question does not appear right away, it is likely that the disqus commenting system has hold it for approval.

Thank you everyone!