Happy the 61th Anniversary of Cambodia Independence Day!

Happy the 61th Anniversary of Cambodia Independence Day!
9 November 1953 - 9 November 2014.

The Smartest Ways To Invest $1,000 In Your 20s

Millennials aren't known for being major financial risk-takers, as evidenced by their avoidance of credit cards
and preference for cash.

They're equally wary when it comes to investing, particularly after witnessing the perils of the stock market that have made headlines over the last few years.

For 20-somethings who are interested in playing the investment game, coming up with the money to do it is usually the hardest part.

When you're putting every penny towards student loan debt or trying to make ends meet on an underwhelming entry-level salary, coming up with even a $1,000 can be tough.

Once you've gotten the cash together, the next challenge is figuring out what to do with it. Here are some of the best ways to invest $1,000 once you're ready to make the leap.

1. Open a money market account.
Keeping your cash in a savings account is smarter than just sticking it under the mattress, but you won’t earn a ton of interest based on the current rates.

Parking that $1,000 you've been holding onto in a money market instead allows you to snag a slightly better rate while you're researching your other investment options.

While you can open a money market at your local bank branch, you may be able to squeeze out a few extra pennies in interest by going with a high-yield account online.

2. Bump up retirement contributions.
If you're just getting your feet wet as an investor, one of the easiest places to start is with your retirement plan. Funneling more money into your 401(k) or opening an IRA is a fairly no-fuss way to put your investment seed money to work. Adding an extra $1,000 to your annual contributions each year may not seem like much but the result is a larger nest egg down the road.

For example, say you defer $10,000 of your income into your 401(k) each year. After 25 years, those contributions would be worth right around $500,000, assuming a 5% rate of return. Now, if you were to bump up your deferral to $11,000, you'd see the value of those contributions grow to approximately $551,000. When you consider that it breaks down to roughly $3 a day extra that you're chipping in, it adds up to a pretty decent payoff.
3. Buy fractional shares.

Purchasing individual stocks can quickly eat into the money you've set aside to invest, but opting for fractional shares allows you to get the most out of every dollar. You can use your $1,000 to open an account through a platform like ShareBuilder and choose from a variety of investments, including stocks and mutual funds.

Scheduling regular deposits to your account, either on a weekly or monthly basis, gives you an opportunity to purchase additional shares without requiring a substantial amount of money. Throwing in another $25 or $50 a month shouldn't be too taxing on your budget and it's a relatively no-hassle way to grow your portfolio.

4. Do your homework on mutual funds.
Picking the right stocks is a challenge even when you're a seasoned investor, and for the average 20-something, it may seem downright impossible. Mutual funds, on the other hand, take a lot of the guesswork out of the process but you'll still need to do some research to find the right one. Morningstar is one of the best places to start if you're looking for an in-depth breakdown of a fund's performance. Scottrade is another good source of information.

When you're comparing different mutual funds, it's important to consider other things besides the annual return. Some of things you'll want to pay attention to include the level of risk you'd be taking on if you decided to invest $1,000 in a particular fund, the size of the fund, and the different fees that go along with it. Since you're only working with a small amount of cash to start, you want to make sure that a big chunk of it isn't being eaten up by sales commissions or maintenance fees.

5. Knock out high-interest debt.
If you're mired in credit card debt, throwing an extra grand at the balance can make a nice dent in what you owe. Not only that, but you'll be saving yourself some money on the interest. Comparing the amount of interest you’re paying to kind of returns you might expect will give you a better idea of which is the better investment.

For instance, if you've got a $5,000 balance at 18% and you pay $250 a month, it'll take you two years to clear the debt and cost you almost $1,000 in interest. Bringing the balance down to $4,000 in one go shaves five months off the repayment time and cuts the interest down by about $400. When you consider that it would take you five years at a 7% annual return to make $400 on a $1,000 investment, it's easy to see which one offers the most immediate results.

6. Invest in yourself.
Deciding to invest $1,000 in yourself may feel a little selfish, but you shouldn't be too quick to dismiss the idea. Using the money to start a side business, build a potentially profitable website, learn a new skill, or take a class that could advance your career or may allow you to reap some big rewards down the road.

While there's still a certain degree of risk involved, you have the advantage by knowing what your goals are and what you need to do to maximize the odds of success.

(Source: Business Insider)

15 Free Online Learning Sites Every Entrepreneur Should Visit

Being a successful entrepreneur means you have to wear a lot of hats, especially when your company is just starting out and you don’t have enough employees to cover all the areas you need.

Learning the new skills necessary to start a new business can be expensive, but fortunately the initiative for free, high-quality, educational resources online has only continued to grow in the past few years. Below are some of the resources available to learn more about marketing, entrepreneurship, business management and more.

1. CodeAcademy
This great resource offers free interactive programming sessions to help you learn programming languages such as HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP. You can save your progress as you go with a free account. Learning to code can help entrepreneurs fix bugs if they don’t have a developer, or even go down the road of building their own website or products (such as apps).

2. HubSpot Academy
The free certification program offers courses on inbound marketing, including website optimization, landing pages and lead nurturing. These skills are a must for business owners as they try to grow their business and online presence.

3. Moz
If you want to learn search-engine optimization to make sure your website is as visible as possible, check out this treasure trove of resources from SEO leader, Moz. Besides having the free Moz Academy, there are also webinars (live and recorded), and beginner’s guides to SEO, social media and link building.

4. LearnVest
The most successful entrepreneurs know how to manage their money both on a business and personal side. In addition to having extremely affordable finance classes, LearnVest also offers some of its classes for free, such as “Building Better Money Habits” and “How to Budget.”

5. Niche consultant courses
The Internet has made for a coaching boom, which is extremely helpful to entrepreneurs who want to learn how to start or better a business in a specific niche. Some great coaches and organizations that routinely have free courses and ebooks on building a business include Natalie MacNeil and MyOwnBusiness. Try searching “niche keyword” + “business course” to find one most applicable to you.

6. edX
This free site currently has over 300 courses on a variety of topics, including “Financial Analysis and Decision Making” and “Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer?” These courses not only cover business in general, but can also you help learn more skills that are applicable to your industry, such as big data or environmental conservation.

7. Khan Academy
This free learning resource was created to give everyone access to education in math, science, art, technology and more. There are over 100,000 interactive exercises to put your education to practical use. Even though many of the courses are geared toward high school students, there are several courses that would be good for anyone to have a refresher on, such as taxes and accounting.

8. MIT Open Courseware
These are actual courses taught at MIT and offered for free on the site for viewing and reading at your discretion. The school put together an entrepreneurship page that lists available courses that are beneficial to new business owners. Courses include “Early State Capital” and “The Software Business.”

9. Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
This university has almost 100 free on-demand college courses that are extremely applicable to entrepreneurs, including ones that cover business planning, operations and management and small-business tax.

10. Coursera
Much like MIT’s Open Courseware, this site has 114 educational partners that provide free courses to almost 10 million users. One benefit to Coursera is that there are very specific courses that fit perfectly into particular niches, such as “Data Management for Clinical Research” from Vanderbilt University and “Innovation for Entrepreneurs: From Idea to Marketplace” from the University of Maryland. Its wide network of partners allows for a greater selection.

11. OpenCulture
This site isn’t an educational platform on its own, but rather collects and shares free resources from around the web. Its list of 150 free online business courses is a great resource because it offers classes from iTunes U and other lessons on video and audio. The site also has lists of free audiobooks, certificate courses and other online courses.

12. YouTube
It’s probably unsurprising to most users that YouTube is one of the world’s largest search engines, as there are literally videos on just about anything you can imagine. From TED talks to recorded presentations on building a business, it’s a great free resource on just about any topic.

13. Alison
This platform offers free online courses from some of the most well-known names on the internet today, including Google, Microsoft, and Macmillan. With over 4 million users and over 600 courses already, it covers topics such as economic literacy, personal development and business/enterprise skills.

14. Saylor
The Saylor Foundation offers tuition-free courses and also works with accredited colleges and universities to offer affordable credentials. Its course offerings are similar to what you’d see when working toward a bachelor’s degree.

15. Podcasts
Even though it’s not an official course, podcasts are an amazing (and easily digestible) way to become a better entrepreneur. Podcasts can be listened to via streaming on your computer (if that certain podcast offers it) or via iTunes for iOS and apps such as Podcast Republic for Android. Podcasts such as Entrepreneur of Fire already garner thousands of listeners every episode and are a great way to learn the most up-to-date information and strategies possible. Another good list of entrepreneur podcasts include Think Entrepreneurship's.

Whether you learn best by audio, video or text, this list of 15 learning resources for entrepreneurs can help you learn more about building a business, accounting and getting customers.

(Source: Entrepreneur)

21 Ways to Achieve Wealth and Success

In his book, Rich Habits -- The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, Tom Corley outlines several habits that distinguish the wealthy from the nonwealthy. 

It got me to think, How many people operate on autopilot and don’t stop to monitor their everyday patterns? Below I've summarized 19 of his habits for success (nine culled from his book and the next 10 from his recent article in Success) plus two of my own. If you're not actively engaged in these 21 things, you are, in effect, leaving money on the table.

1. Setting good daily habits.
Good habits are the foundation of wealth building. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people lies in their daily habits. Simply put, successful people have many good habits and few bad ones. If you understand that your bad habits may be preventing you from becoming wealthy, that realization will be the first step in your improving your circumstances.
In his book, Corley invites you to take out a sheet of paper and list your bad habits in one column and then invert each one to place under a new column for good habits. It should look like this:

Bad Habit/Good Habit
I watch too much TV.             I limit myself to one hour of TV per day. 
I don’t remember names.     I write down names and remember them. 
Then for 30 days, follow the guidance of your new good habits list. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish. 

2. Regularly creating goals.
Successful people are goal driven. They create goals all the time. They plan their day the night before with to-do lists.
People who are headed for success think for the long term. They have daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals. But what’s a goal without a plan to reach them? So not only do successful people have goals, they also come up with ways to achieve them and hold themselves accountable. 

3. Engaging in self-improvement daily.
Successful people are always looking for ways to improve themselves. They read every day and are students of their profession. They don’t spend their time on activities that don't bring them closer to their goals.
I recently attended an event hosted by author Brendon Burchard, who said he consistently blocks out time to create. Successful people like Burchard know that time is too valuable a commodity to waste. They spend their time on the things that will move the needle for them in their business: Being committed to self-improvement means you engage in activities every day that will stretch you.
Seek ways to expand your knowledge. This won’t always be easy, but people grow from things that pose a challenge. Once your knowledge grows, opportunities appear. 

4. Regularly taking care of personal health.
Each and every day successful people make an effort to eat right and exercise. Eating right is of utmost importance. Exercising daily can become a regular habit, just like taking a bath. People who exercise routinely have more energy to get things done. How are you doing in this area? 

5. Often making time for relationship building.
People who are successful are other-people focused. They take time out of their day to strengthen the bonds of friendship and form long-lasting relationships with others. Networking is something they do all the time. They reach out to their contacts and look for ways to help them with no expectation of in return.
The most beautiful sound on Earth, I once heard someone say, is your name. So make it a goal to learn the names of every contact you meet. Aren’t you impressed when someone remembers your name? I know I am. So stand out as different and start remembering names. 

6. Doing things in moderation.
You live in a balanced way if you do activities in moderation. This means having a balanced approach to work, eating, exercise, consuming alcohol, watching television, surfing the Internet and so forth. As a result, people will enjoy your company. If people like being around you, then you will be more apt to collaborate or find the new business partner that you need to take your business to the next level. 

7. Getting things done.
Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today: Accomplish things. All people have fears, but successful people push past them. They don't procrastinate. They get the important things done, no matter the cost.
In Rich Habits, Corley explains that when the thought of putting off something enters the mind, immediately shed notion by saying, “Do it now.” He says repeat these words 100 times if necessary. Just don’t stop till the task is done. 

8. Keeping a positive outlook.
Consider the most successful person you know. Is that person positive or negative? Most likely this individual is positive, enthusiastic, energetic and happy. This person chooses to see the good in others and in himself or herself. To this person, problems are just opportunities waiting to be uncovered.
Every day people are bombarded by news of bad deeds and doings. Successful people minimize their exposure to this type of thing and instead opt to fill their minds with positive ideas from books and magazines. 

9. Regularly saving money. 
According to Corley, successful individuals put away about 10 percent to 20 percent of their gross earnings in a savings, investment or retirement plan. Not everyone can afford to do so, but what percent are you putting away? 

10. Rejecting self-limiting thoughts. 
Successful people command their thoughts and emotions. As soon as bad thoughts intrude, they cast out anything that challenges their ability to succeed at the task at hand. They do not dwell on negative notions. Their self-talk is positive and not overly critical. They replace bad thoughts with good ones.
Because successful people engage in self-improvement daily and are constantly involved in positive things, they don’t allow themselves time to indulge in negative emotions. 

11. Living within means.
Wealthy people avoid overspending. Among many of those struggling financially, some are living above their means. They spend more than they earn, live from paycheck to paycheck and are drowning in credit-card debt. If this is you, resolve today to turn things around for you and your family. 

12. Reading daily. 
Many successful people read 30 minutes or more every day. Reading can increase your knowledge and know-how. When you read, often  you are seeking to improve yourself. This automatically sets you apart from your counterparts. You will stand out from the competition. 

13. Limiting TV watching. 
Did you know that many successful  people limit the amount their TV time to one hour or less a day? How much time do you lose in front of the television that you could be spending doing something more productive? 

14. Doing more than what’s required.
Successful people regularly go above and beyond the call of duty at work. Even if something is not in their job description, they will volunteer to do it. Wealthy people make themselves invaluable. As an entrepreneur, you may not have a boss. But in what ways do you go above and beyond for your clients? How do you wow them? 

15. Talking less and listening more. 
When you listen, you learn. And as the adage goes, that’s why people have two ears and one mouth. When you take the time to really pay attention to what another person is saying, it can truly help not only you but your bottom line as well. When you listen, you are in a better position to help others. 

16. Not giving up.
Don't give up when the going gets tough. Successful people hang in there. They pivot. They try something new. They persist. They may have to change their direction, but they keep moving forward. 

17. Spending time with like-minded ones. 
There's a saying that goes, “Show me who your friends are and I’ll show you who you are.” I believe that. People are only as successful as those they choose to surround themselves with. Good associations can help you more quickly achieve your goals. 

18. Finding a mentor.
Many people who have had a mentor have attributed their success to that person. Mentors can help you achieve your goals faster and keep you accountable. They can share valuable experience that can cut your learning time in half.

19. Knowing your why.
When you know why you're doing something, you will get what you what quicker than if you don’t. Having a purpose is essential to being successful in business and in life. Why do you want to be successful? Why do you really want to be wealthy? 

20. Not giving fear the upper hand. 
Everyone has fears. Successful people don’t allow their fears to limit or define them. Fear inevitably keeps you in the same position and stunts your growth. Recognize your fears and seek ways to overcome them. Interview someone you admire and ask that person how he or she overcame a fear or pick up an autobiography and take notes. 

21. Upgrading skills.
If you want to get ahead, there’s only one way to do it: Become better at something than you are today. What's the one thing you can focus on for the next 30 days that will catapult you to rock-star status in your industry? Focus your attention on that. I heard John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire define "FOCUS" like this: Follow one course until success. Will you? 

(Source: entrepreneur)

Commemoration Day of HRM King Norodom Sihanouk

Photo credit: Mr. Rith at the Royal Embassy of Cambodia
to Brunei Darussalam

Bandar Seri Begawan, 15 October 2014: Again, our nation and people are currently of greatest sadness for the loss of our beloved King Father Norodom Sihanouk who passed away on 15 October 2012.

In 2012, millions of Cambodian people sadly joined His Majesty's procession ceremony from the airport to the Royal Palace to respectfully pay tributes to our King Father with a heavy heart, heartfelt love and respect, and with deepest sadness in the country as a whole. This has shown a truly emotional unity from our people from different provinces and places in our country including the monks, the old and the young who held mourning ceremony for our beloved King Father.
 
Today, I respectfully join the Commemoration Day of HRM King Norodom Sihanouk at the Royal Embassy of Cambodia to Brunei Darussalam with a heavy heart, heartfelt love and respect. Again, I would like to sincerely express my deepest and heartfelt condolences to our King Father Norodom Sihanouk.

His Majesty's great success and achievements have led our country into peace, unity, and prosperity over the past decades till present. His Majesty's glorious achievements and honor will never be forgotten and always be in our sincere heart. May our King Father's soul rest in eternal peace. His Majesty King Father is always in the heart of Cambodian people forever.

Please kindly accept my deepest condolences, sincere love and respect on this occasion. 

Brunei Darussalam, 15 October 2014

Yours Sincerely,
Bong Angkeara

19 hard things you need to do to be successful

The simple truth about how ordinary people accomplish outrageous feats of success is that they do the hard things that smarter, wealthier, more qualified people don’t have the courage or desperation to do. Do the hard things. You might be surprised at how amazing you really are.

You have to do the hard things.

• You have to make the call you’re afraid to make.

• You have to get up earlier than you want to get up.

• You have to give more than you get in return right away.

• You have to care more about others than they care about you.

• You have to fight when you are already injured, bloody, and sore.

• You have to feel unsure and insecure when playing it safe seems smarter.

• You have to lead when no one else is following you yet.

• You have to invest in yourself even though no one else is.

• You have to look like a fool while you’re looking for answers you don’t have.

• You have to grind out the details when it’s easier to shrug them off.

• You have to deliver results when making excuses is an option.

• You have to search for your own explanations even when you’re told to accept the “facts.”

• You have to make mistakes and look like an idiot.

• You have to try and fail and try again.

• You have to run faster even though you’re out of breath.

• You have to be kind to people who have been cruel to you.

• You have to meet deadlines that are unreasonable and deliver results that are unparalleled.

• You have to be accountable for your actions even when things go wrong.

• You have to keep moving towards where you want to be no matter what’s in front of you.

You have to do the hard things. The things that no one else is doing. The things that scare you. The things that make you wonder how much longer you can hold on. Those are the things that define you. Those are the things that make the difference between living a life of mediocrity or outrageous success. The hard things are the easiest things to avoid. To excuse away. To pretend like they don’t apply to you.

(Source: Business Insider)

Five morning rituals to keep you productive all day long

Most of us work long hours: 40, 50 or even 60 hours each week. But chances are, given distractions like online entertainment, office snacking habits and ill-designed time management, we're only churning out high-quality work a portion of each day.
Here are five practical steps to incorporate into any morning routine to optimize your time at the office and maintain productivity all day long: 

7 minutes of exercise. 
Why? It's short enough that it won't impact the rest of your morning routine and long enough to shake off any residual sluggishness from the night before -- including that extra glass of wine. There are endless fitness routines to turn to, but the one I like best is called the 7 Minute Workout (and yes, there's an app for that). In just seven minutes, it works all major muscle groups with 12 total exercises.

Start your day out green. 
Sure, we've all been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and it's pretty easy to reach for a bagel, bowl of cereal, egg sandwich or cup of yogurt to get your metabolism going. While all of these options are fine choices once in a while, you'll be shocked at the morning lift you can get from a green smoothie. And healthy juicing requires less time in the morning than toasting a bagel and slathering it with low fat cream cheese. I go quick and easy, blending (for about a minute): one apple, one banana, one orange, a handful of spinach, half of a cucumber, any juice or coconut water on hand, a few cubes of ice and some flax seed. It's cheap, easy and energizing.

Pick 3 wins for the day. 
While you're waiting for that smoothie to blend, get ahead of the evening's conversation with your significant other; you know, the one that starts, "How was your day?"
Decide on the three things that you'd like to accomplish in the next 12 hours in order for you to feel like the day was a success. Sure, not every day will be an epic win, but strategizing in this way will help to move the ball forward. 

Block your calendar to achieve wins. 
One of the most common mistakes people make at the office is not turning to-do lists into time-bound, effective project lists. I've found that people who have mastered this hack are far more likely to deliver tasks on time. It's simple: For each of the big things on your list, block off the amount of time on your calendar that you estimate the task might take; and then add 33% more time just to be sure. If a project is multi day or has dependencies, break it up into digestible chunks. Use one block to plan and a second or third block to accomplish. This simple method will help hold you accountable and immediately help you refocus on the tasks you've prioritized when you do get distracted. Too often, we let one distraction steamroll an entire morning; now you don't have to let that client email derail you from your winning plan for the day.

Power up after lunch. Take the 15 minutes right after lunch to refocus on the day; a kind of professional meditation. Get away from your computer, turn it off, go sit in a conference room and determine what you have on tap for the rest of the day. Think about how the list you set in the morning is shaping up. Are you ahead of schedule? Behind schedule? You'll find that these 15 minutes help you identify how you got derailed, what's causing you distractions and help you to rediscover a rhythm to be productive all day long.
Give this simple formula a try for a week and I think you'll be pleased with the results. 

(Source: entrepreneur)

A smart investor would skip the M.B.A.

Imagine that you have been accepted to Harvard Business School. The ivy-covered buildings and high-powered faculty whisper that all you need to do is listen to your teachers, get good grades and work well with your peers. After two years, you'll emerge ready to take the business world by storm. Once you have that degree, you'll have it made.

But don't kid yourself. What matters exponentially more than that M.B.A. is the set of skills and accomplishments that got you into business school in the first place. What if those same students, instead of spending two years and $174,400 at Harvard Business School, took the same amount of money and invested it in themselves? How would they compare after two years?

If you want a business education, the odds aren't with you, unfortunately, in business school. Professors are rewarded for publishing journal articles, not for being good teachers. The other students are trying to get ahead of you. The development office is already assessing you for future donations. Administrators care about the metrics that will improve your school's national ranking. None of these things actually helps you learn about business.

Consider what you could do instead with that $174,400. The first step should be to move to a part of the country that supports your interests. If that's film, move to Los Angeles. Technology, San Francisco. Oil, Houston. You could live decently in these cities for $3,000 per month. Over the course of two years, that still leaves you $100,000 to invest in yourself.

To decide how to do that, start unpacking the value of an M.B.A. Good business schools deliver two main values: educational content and a network. Acquiring the content is easy: Go online and take the classes using OpenCourseWare or Coursera. You'll get to watch the same lectures, but for free.

Finding and building a network will be more valuable to you than an M.B.A. You cannot buy a network. Your network is built on relationships with people, founded on trust. You also cannot buy trust—it's something built over time. Invest in buying coffee, drinks and dinner for people you want to get to know. This may be deeply uncomfortable, and that's good. It means that building relationships will be easier in the future. Ask people how they got to their current job, what resources they recommend, and what books they think you should read.

Building an army of people who trust you and think you're talented will be invaluable when you look for jobs. Consider investing in hard skills such as programming. Dev Bootcamp, a 10-week training course in programming, costs only $12,200. It takes people with no experience and teaches them how to code. In 2012, 88% of its graduates got job offers at an average starting salary of $79,000. Those outcomes are far better than for students fresh out of M.B.A. programs. According to Payscale.com, the average starting salary for M.B.A. graduates with less than one year of experience was $46,630 in 2012. Dev Bootcamp offers a much better return on investment.

If you aren't accepted to Harvard, the argument against going to business school becomes even stronger. At least with their Harvard M.B.A.s, less than 5% of the class of 2012 was unemployed three months after graduating. But at the University of Southern California, 23% of 2012 M.B.A. grads were still unemployed three months after graduation. And that's at USC, a fairly well-known school. The return on investment of going to Harvard or another top-10 business school has remained relatively high, but the return on going to lesser schools is very questionable.

The prospect of forgoing business school in favor of real-world accomplishments is scary for many new college graduates. Youth employment is the lowest since the 1950s, and for the first time more unemployed people have college experience than not. Competition for new jobs is fierce, with 50% of the world's population under 30. When you are competing against 3.5 billion people, it pays to be different. But getting another university degree doesn't make you different.

Instead of relying on business school to succeed, deliberately practice the skills necessary to become a master in your chosen field. Build a network that supports your professional aspirations. Work on projects that show you can have an impact in the real world, dealing with practical problems.

Most of all, put yourself in the shoes of your future boss and imagine whom you would rather hire: the candidate who built a profitable business over the course of two years, or the candidate who sat in lectures and reviewed case studies to get a degree?

(Source: The Wall Street Journal)

How to Become a Millionaire by Age 30

Getting rich and becoming a millionaire is a taboo topic. Saying it can be done by the age of 30 seems like a fantasy. It shouldn’t be taboo and it is possible. At the age of 21, I got out of college, broke and in debt, and by the time I was 30, I was a millionaire.

Here are the 10 steps that will guarantee you will become a millionaire by 30.

1. Follow the money. In today’s economic environment you cannot save your way to millionaire status. The first step is to focus on increasing your income in increments and repeating that. My income was $3,000 a month and nine years later it was $20,000 a month. Start following the money and it will force you to control revenue and see opportunities.

2. Don’t show off -- show up! I didn’t buy my first luxury watch or car until my businesses and investments were producing multiple secure flows of income. I was still driving a Toyota Camry when I had become a millionaire. Be known for your work ethic, not the trinkets that you buy.

3. Save to invest, don’t save to save. The only reason to save money is to invest it.  Put your saved money into secured, sacred (untouchable) accounts. Never use these accounts for anything, not even an emergency. This will force you to continue to follow step one (increase income). To this day, at least twice a year, I am broke because I always invest my surpluses into ventures I cannot access.

4. Avoid debt that doesn’t pay you. Make it a rule that you never use debt that won’t make you money. I borrowed money for a car only because I knew it could increase my income. Rich people use debt to leverage investments and grow cash flows. Poor people use debt to buy things that make rich people richer.

5. Treat money like a jealous lover. Millions wish for financial freedom, but only those that make it a priority have millions. To get rich and stay rich you will have to make it a priority. Money is like a jealous lover. Ignore it and it will ignore you, or worse, it will leave you for someone who makes it a priority.

6. Money doesn’t sleep. Money doesn’t know about clocks, schedules or holidays, and you shouldn’t either. Money loves people that have a great work ethic. When I was 26 years old, I was in retail and the store I worked at closed at 7 p.m. Most times you could find me there at 11 p.m. making an extra sale. Never try to be the smartest or luckiest person -- just make sure you outwork everyone.

7. Poor makes no sense. I have been poor, and it sucks. I have had just enough and that sucks almost as bad. Eliminate any and all ideas that being poor is somehow OK. Bill Gates has said, "If you’re born poor, it’s not your mistake. But if you die poor, it is your mistake."

8. Get a millionaire mentor. Most of us were brought up middle class or poor and then hold ourselves to the limits and ideas of that group. I have been studying millionaires to duplicate what they did. Get your own personal millionaire mentor and study them. Most rich people are extremely generous with their knowledge and their resources.

9. Get your money to do the heavy lifting. Investing is the Holy Grail in becoming a millionaire and you should make more money off your investments than your work. If you don’t have surplus money you won’t make investments. The second company I started required a $50,000 investment. That company has paid me back that $50,000 every month for the last 10 years. My third investment was in real estate, where I started with $350,000, a large part of my net worth at the time. I still own that property today and it continues to provide me with income. Investing is the only reason to do the other steps, and your money must work for you and do your heavy lifting.

10. Shoot for $10 million, not $1 million. The single biggest financial mistake I’ve made was not thinking big enough. I encourage you to go for more than a million. There is no shortage of money on this planet, only a shortage of people thinking big enough.

Apply these 10 steps and they will make you rich. Steer clear of people that suggest your financial dreams are born of greed. Avoid get-rich-quick schemes, be ethical, never give up, and once you make it, be willing to help others get there too.

(Source: entrepreneur.com)

How to keep track of your good ideas everyday.

You have good ideas. Don't let them disappear.

Good ideas come and go every second, but what doesn’t happen very often is the capturing of those thoughts. You can have the brightest and sharpest ideas that could take your life and business to a whole new level, but they mean absolutely nothing if they're pushed aside and forgotten.

It doesn’t matter what our education levels are or where we come from, we all have great and wonderful ideas. The only problem is that most people let the hustle and bustle of life get in the way and interrupt their ability to capture their golden ideas.
Now, you might not come up with the world’s next greatest invention (or maybe you will). But everything we use in our day-to-day lives was once just an idea. Not every idea will be worth a billion dollars, but perhaps one or two of them can change the trajectory of your business and life for the better.
We all have 24 hours in a day, no more or no less than the next person. Think about how many times where an idea or thought comes to mind but you do nothing about it. There really is no value for us if we don’t take the initiative. The other reason why it is so imperative that we capture our ideas is because coincidence or not, some of our best ideas don't come to us in the office.

Here are three steps to take every day:

Have a system. The best way I have found to capture ideas on a regular basis is to take a systematic approach to it. We all prefer different ways of doing things. Some of us prefer electronic devices while some of us stick to the trusted pen-and-paper route.
Either way, pick what works for you and stick with it. I prefer to log all of my ideas and thoughts into evernote and then at the end of the day analyze each idea. After I dig a little deeper, I transfer the ideas that I may want to act on immediately or in the near future into my moleskin journal.

Pick the good ones. Just because you start capturing your thoughts and ideas doesn’t mean everything that comes to mind is going to be something that you will act on. Finding time alone where you can analyze what you logged for the day helps tremendously. This is where you can determine whether a specific idea is worthy of your time. Throw out what’s useless.

Make it a habit. Just like with any new habit that we try to adopt into our everyday lives, it takes time. I truly believe that if you make a determined effort on a regular basis to capture your ideas, it will greatly benefit your personal and professional life.
Of all the great men and women I have had the fortune to work with, they all knew the importance of keeping track of their thoughts and ideas. Stick with it.

(Source: Entrepreneur)

What rich people have next to their beds

You know what you'll probably find on a successful (read: rich) person's nightstand?

Books. But not just any books, according to Tom Corley, the author of "Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits Of Wealthy Individuals." His research finds that rich and poor people alike are cracking their fair share of spines, but the key difference is that less financially successful people read for entertainment, while rich people read for self-improvement.

Note that Corley defines "rich people" as having an annual income of $160,000 or more and a liquid net worth of $3.2 million-plus, and "poor people" as those having an annual income of $35,000 or less and a liquid net worth of $5,000 or less.

Here's how the numbers break down:

• 11% of rich people read for entertainment, compared to 79% of poor
• 85% of rich people read two or more education, career-related, or self-improvement books per month, compared to 15% of poor
• 94% of rich people read news publications including newspapers and blogs, compared to 11% of poor people

"The overall conclusion that I reached in my research is that your daily habits will dictate your financial success in life, and there are four or five key ones," says Corley. One of those keys, he explains, is self-education. "The rich are voracious readers on how to improve themselves. They're reading self-improvement books, biographies, books about successful people, things like that."

In fact, Corley found that educational reading overlapped with another factor of success: mentorship. After being asked in an interview about his finding that only 24% of the wealthy people he studied had mentors, he went back over the research and found that 93% of those with mentors agreed with the statement, "My mentor was responsible for my wealth."

"The reason why the wealthy people without mentors said they didn't have one was that they got their education through reading books, and through the school of hard knocks," Corley says. Over half of those people were business owners who effectually mentored themselves, through books and experience.
To that end, Corley has included books as one of his five kinds of mentors, which also include parents, teachers, work colleagues, and the "school of hard knocks."

(Source: Business Insider)

Scholarship: Master of Public Policy and Management at UBD

MASTER SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY:

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) offers an internationally-focused cross-disciplinary Master of Public Policy and Management (MPPM), which is characterised by its focus on nurturing excellence in both policy skills and management qualities. The Programme also emphasises on analytical writing, quantitative and verbal reasoning skills.

IPS is inviting applications from East Asia Summit participating countries to join their MPPM which the second cohort will begin on 27th December 2014. The closing date for the MPPM applications is 17th July 2014.

International Focus

The MPPM is an 18-month programme which the students will spend 12 months in UBD and the third semester in one of the partner policy schools in the United States. They are:

-McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University
-Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University
-School of Public Policy, University of Maryland
-Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

In the third semester, students will also be having a two-week study visit to Washington, D.C., meeting people from key policymaking institutions including the House of Congress, policy think-tanks and non-profit sectors.

The MPPM has three specialisation tracks:

* Islamic Governance and Islamic International Relations
* Energy Policy and Management
* Environmental Policy and Management

Advisor Profile

Professor John W. Thomas, Professor of Harvard Kennedy School of Government - Harvard University has been appointed as the Advisor and Eminent Visiting Professor to IPS and MPPM. His vast experience includes establishing the Public Policy Programme at the National University of Singapore, now the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and counselling Asian, African, and Latin American universities on the development of public policy programmes.

Who Should Apply

- High performing employees in the public and private sector with at least 5 years of relevant work experience with high leadership potential
- Those from the international development agencies and non-profit sectors who are contributing in a significant way to the field of sustainable international development
- Outstanding international participants with at least 5 years of relevant work experience with leadership capabilities

Entry Requirements

a) Normally an Upper Second Class Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant discipline from a university recognised by the Senate of UBD with at least 5 years relevant work experience.
b) a minimum English qualification of GCE ‘O’ Level Credit 6 or IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL 550 is required.
c) Also, a minimum Mathematics qualification of GCE ‘O’ Level Credit 6 or one “pass” in a subsequent level mathematics subject is essential.

If you require further information, please do not hesitate to e-mail the Institute of Policy Studies at:

office.ips@ubd.edu.bn, office.ips@ubd.edu.bn or norfarahiyah.tuah@ubd.edu.bn, norfarahiyah.tuah@ubd.edu.bn
Source: http://www.ubd.edu.bn/faculties-and-institutes/ips/

How to Raise Money for Your Business

Whether you've been in business one week or five years, an infusion of funds is always welcome. But what type of financing is best for your business? There are so many factors to consider--from the stage of your business to how much it'll cost to get the money--that just choosing a path to follow can be overwhelming.

To help you get your head around the different ways you can finance the growth of your business, we've compiled mini-guides that cover the basic information on many different financing sources. Read through our guides to learn the basics, and then start hunting!

So you've come up with an idea for a business? Congratulations! Now you need startup financing - that initial infusion of money needed to turn the idea into something tangible. And that's where it becomes tricky.
When you are just starting out, you're not at the point yet where a traditional lender or investor would be interested in you. So that leaves you with selling cherished assets, borrowing against your home, maxing out credit cards, dipping into a 401(k), and asking loved ones for loans. There is a lot of risk involved, including the risk of bankruptcy with your personal finances and soured relationships with friends and family.

This is the hard part behind starting a business -- putting so much at risk. But doing so is the rite of passage to both success and failure. It's what sets entrepreneurs apart from people who collect paychecks.
A major key is to ramp up initial operations as quickly as possible to get to the point where outside investors can see and feel the venture, as well as understand that you took some risk getting it to that point.
Some businesses can also be bootstrapped. They can be built up quickly enough to make money without aid from investors who might otherwise come in and start calling the shots.

With so much at risk, it is important to have a strong business plan in place, and to seek out advice from experienced entrepreneurs and experts -- people who might also invest in your business someday.
Seek out local entrepreneurship advice programs. One place to start looking is the SBA's website, which has a search engine for finding local Small Business Development Centers, SCORE chapters and other resources
What's Next: Once you get over the initial hump, it is possible to seek out funding sources available to more advanced startups and early stage companies.

(Source: entrepreneur.com)

4 Factors to Making the Best Decisions for You

When we’re just starting out, we’re thirsty for advice. How else can we be sure we’re making the right decisions? It’s in our best interest to seek out advice -- lots of it. But there comes a time when you have to start relying on yourself for guidance. The problem is, there will always be another book you could benefit from reading. There will always be another helpful article online for you to discover. There will always be another person you could reach out to.

You may find that you’re relying on the same source to help make your decisions for you. Early on in my career, I developed products for many different industries. When it came to marketing, I consulted my wife, who has a marketing degree from Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree from Stanford. She had worked at numerous consumer-product companies and became vice president of marketing at E. & J. Gallo Winery. All of which is to say -- she had much more experience than I did.

Whenever I struggled to make a marketing decision, I’d ask her for help, and then defer to her advice. She was my crutch. I was leaning on her too much. It was easy to blame her when, in reality, the buck stopped with me. I needed to have total confidence in my own decision-making ability to move forward. I realized that I had to make my own decisions. So I did. And, to my delight, my decisions were good ones! As a result, I grew not only as an entrepreneur, but as a person.

For those that are paralyzed with fear and desperately seeking someone to lean on, listen up. At some point -- sooner than later -- you’re going to have to start making your own decisions as an entrepreneur. Here’s how to make the best ones:

1. Read as much as you can, and then stop reading. I’ve met many entrepreneurs who use books as a crutch. They’re always looking for the next book to read. I love reading self-help books too, but there’s just so much information out there. It can easily become paralyzing. Don’t overdo it. You learn by doing.

2. Make a point of seeking out different perspectives. When we talk to the same people -- and in particular, people who are our friends or care about us -- we draw from a limited point of view. If you’re really interested in learning from others, deliberately seek out those with a different perspective. It’s easy (and boring) to listen to people that share your point of view. But you’ll make better decisions if you force yourself to think about new aspects of the same issues. No decision is ever black and white, and your thinking shouldn’t be either.

3. Be flexible. The only way to keep making good decisions as an entrepreneur is to be open-minded and easygoing. It’s a fact that something isn’t going to go according to plan. Plans change, and being an entrepreneur means being willing to take on risk. If you’re still hung up on something that went “wrong” or holding on to the belief that your original plan will work out, you may end up failing to pursue a different, exciting (and maybe even better) option for yourself and your business. You should have a game plan. But that game plan is more likely to end up looking like a zigzag than a straight line.

4. Own your decisions. They are yours and yours alone. If something goes wrong, don’t blame anyone but yourself. How can you learn from the experience if you abdicate responsibility?
Part of what I enjoy about being an entrepreneur is the fact that I get to make my own decisions. At the end of the day, whether they’re good or bad, they’re all mine. If you’re like me, that reality is frightening, wonderful and totally rewarding.

(Source: entrepreneur.com)

Want to be an Entrepreneurial Icon? Try these 5 steps.

If you want to grow your brand and establish yourself as an icon in your field, you’re going to have to get to work. Look at successful entrepreneurs such as Gary Vaynerchuk, Ali Brown and Pat Flynn. These are just a few examples of ordinary people who have achieved extraordinary results through hard work and bootstrapping.

While money and an ultra-successful product can help catapult you to fame, the truth is you can do it on your own from the ground up. I discusseded keys to establishing yourself as an expert back in 2011 based on the book I co-authored, Small Business, Big Vision: Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right. While these steps are still essential, here are some other new ideas you might want to consider to expand your reach when following these keys to icon status.

1. Start blogging and guest posting. Blogging is a great way to share your knowledge with the world. When you write quality posts with tremendous value, you’ll establish yourself as an expert and have people coming back for more. There are other ways to grow through blogging outside your own space today. With the emergence of shared-content sites such as Medium, Quora and Slideshare, you can take your blogging to a whole other level.

There are some guidelines to follow though. Make sure you write in your own voice. Writing the way you’d speak to a large audience will help you get your conversational tone of voice down, and the way you write can translate toward your overall brand. Don’t worry about making your content amazing and “giving away” your best information. In fact, worry about not giving away your best. If you hold back and don’t add real value to your content, your blog will suffer. Give your best and share your style and great content to build yourself as a entrepreneurial icon.

2. Market yourself. You have to spend some time promoting yourself if you want to become an icon in your field. That’s going to take some wisely invested money to start spreading the word. You’ll need a strategy that markets you as the expert on your business and in your field. Start with the same marketing techniques you might use for your business, including a social-media plan that establishes your credentials. Next you’ll want to spread your organic reach. Try scheduled press releases, pitching yourself for relevant stories and trying to get face time with media outlets as an expert for topical issues.
If PR sounds intimidating to try alone, then consider hiring an agency to represent you. There are new ways to connect yourself with audiences such as the popular site HARO (help a reporter out) where you can register as an expert and have journalists reach out to you for your expertise and opinions. Regardless of your approach, you’ll need to market yourself to become an icon.

3. Create compelling content. Creating great content ties in with blogging, but can go far beyond just the writing basics. A few years ago writing a nice story might have been enough. However, today we live in an economy of value exchange. If you give great value, people pay attention and will seek you out. It doesn’t have to just be great blogging content or media advice like in the past. With the emergence of more technology has come the ability to create more compelling content for less cost.
You should now consider adding videos, audio clips, informational graphics, podcasts and animated videos to your content regiment. The more you share compelling content, the more you will be establishing yourself as the leader in your field. Do it yourself or look into agency help, like that offered by Visual.ly, which will create compelling content (for a cost) for you. Don’t be afraid to get creative and give all mediums of content a go.

4. Create valuable products. Not only are products a great way for you to create supplemental or passive income, they also help to further establish yourself as an expert. One common practice is to offer something of good value for free to readers willing to subscribe to your email list. Industry standards include long-form video content, e-books, workbooks and workshop materials. Creating products from your experience that fall in line with your business is a great way to introduce yourself to these new readers.
It can be an especially valid tactic to offer some kind of low-cost product on your website if your typical products are at a high price point. By having a lower price-point product that’s highly valuable, you can ease clients and customers into your brand and your expertise gradually. If the content is truly great, they’ll be back to invest in bigger offerings and higher price-point items from you while tuning in to see what other advice you have.

5. Up-level your expertise. Once you’re established, try to up-level your experience by leveraging your expertise. There are lots of ways to achieve this. You can start consulting and use your expertise as a service. Or you can create your own mentoring programs on speaking circuits as a keynote and workshops. Another incredibly popular route today is to start your own podcast. If done right you have access to a large audience and can build loyal followers through your own personal experience and by having guests from your personal connections you've built over the years.

Excel at these keys and you could be the next big name in entrepreneurial circles.

(Source: entrepreneur.com)

Want to Be Successful? Stick to a Schedule.

There will always be fellow entrepreneurs with more funding, better connections or years of experience. One thing, however, that puts us all on a level playing field: the number of hours in a day. Figuring out how to effectively spend the 24 hours in each day is one of the most challenging parts of being a business owner.
When I first started out, I thought the main perk of working on my own as a publicist would be being able to do things, according to my own schedule. I didn’t have a daily routine. My schedule would just depend on my mood.
After about a year of functioning in this way, I realized that I needed to work during more normal business hours if I really wanted to grow my company. I decided to create a schedule and I still stick to one today. Not only did this make me feel significantly less stressed, I was getting more done in fewer hours!


Heather Pierce, designer and CEO of Raya Hanan in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., says it best: “On top of the duties and pressures that come along with being a business owner, there is always people needing your immediate attention," she writes via email. "A skill that is helpful is prioritizing your tasks and keeping a list of everything that needs to get accomplished.”
If you don’t create a plan on a daily or weekly basis, becoming disorganized is easy. Even if you have all the resources in the world, not using your time wisely can cost you.

Here are some ways to set up a routine and get more done:

1. Embrace mornings, nights or weekends. Pick one of these times, when other people aren’t working, to focus on projects that require a lot of concentration. Every morning from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. is my uninterrupted time to write articles, answer emails and work on research projects.
If I tried to get these projects done in the middle of the day, it would take me twice as long because I would be constantly distracted by phone calls, emails and meetings. Those four hours in the morning are my most productive. I probably get about 75 percent of my work done then.

2. Schedule everything in one spot or organizational device. This may seem like it's taking out all the fun in life. Wrong! It makes life more fun because you aren’t constantly worrying about how to fit everything in.
It's "crucial to make sure you record all your meetings and appointments in one place instead of having them scattered throughout different calendars, notebooks, and apps," writes Alexandra Weiss, a partner at CA Creative in New York, via email. "Not only will it save time to only have to check one calendar but it will also help ensure that you are not double booking or missing any meetings.”
When I first began my public relations work, I often canceled plans with friends because projects would take longer than I expected. I didn't feel I was getting anything done. Then I started scheduling both my professional and personal commitments in one place and assigning equal importance to both. This way I can really see how much time I have for each.


3. Find a method that works for you. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all method for scheduling. Try a few different things and see what works. If your calendar or to-do list isn’t easy to use, you will never keep your schedule organized.
For example, Jamie Walker, CEO of SweatGuru and Fit Approach in San Francisco, shares via email, “I schedule EVERYTHING on my calendar and every little thing I need to do goes on Trello." About the organizational app, she says, "I love Trello because I can create a to-do list each week and access it from my phone or computer."
Adds Walker: "I can also assign my team tasks and check in to see what [different individuals] have on their plates for the week. It's such a great way to stay organized and on schedule.”
In contrast, Pierce usually creates "a long, to-do list containing everything that needs to be completed," she says. "I then mark the most urgent tasks and the things that I am able to get done later in the day and the things that need to be done during business hours. The tasks that need to get done that same day I call my SOS list.”

4. Don’t panic when things don’t go according to the plan. This is probably something I could work at. I become anxious when meetings run late, conference calls go over the budgeted time or projects take longer than anticipated. The reality is this type of thing happens on a daily basis, and you can’t get too stressed out about it. Figuring out how to deal with the unexpected is just part of being an entrepreneur.
When you have set up a structure, and the things arise at the last minute, it's a lot easier to deal with them. There is no point in worrying. That will just cut into your schedule even more.

(Source: entrepreneur.com )

Book Review: The End of Poverty

Introduction

Poverty can be visualized as the receipt of real incomes too small to enable people to live at minimum standards of health, education, and welfare (Stevenson, 1960). Every second, children die from AIDS and extreme poverty and more than one billion people could not afford their living. Six million children pass away from malnutrition every year (Cozay, 2009). Poverty ⁽¹⁾ is one of the major obstacles for the developing world and needed to be settled in our generation. Therefore, Sachs has made news with a plan to end extreme poverty and hence, he wrote a book entitled ‘The End of Poverty’ which focuses on how to end poverty. The Goals are to halve extreme poverty by 2015 and end it by 2025.  Jaffrey Sachs is a well-known economic adviser to the governments around the world. He is the Earth Institute Director at the Columbia University and also a Special Advisor to the United Nations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). He has been to more than 100 countries to help reduce disease, poverty, environmental damage and armed conflict, and offer advice on the national economies. Sachs’s main purpose is to end poverty by 2025. He addresses certain issues which are one of the most compelling plans to alleviate poverty that economists often underestimate. He tries to show a big picture of how the whole societies emerge from poverty by explaining his work in Bolivia, India, Russia, Africa, China, and other countries integrating the set of solutions for economic, environmental, social, political problems which challenge the poorest countries. Yet, there are some strength and weakness which he made in his book. Therefore, this critical paper will discuss and analyses some of his assertion in his book on how to end of poverty. I divide this paper into three parts: first, a summary of his book relating to poverty alleviation; second, I discuss some strength and weakness and analytical aspects of some of his arguments. And finally, I summarize this analytical aspect.

Summary:

The main thrust of Sachs’s book focuses on how to end extreme poverty ⁽²⁾ in our time. He has seen extreme poverty, disease, and malnutrition around the world and particularly, while he focuses on the sub-Saharan Africa. More than eight million people around the world die each year because they are too poor. Sachs’s main argument is our generation could help ending to halve extreme poverty by 2015 and end it by 2025, and ensure that all of poor countries could make reliable progress up the ladder of economic development. And it can be ended not in the time of our grandchildren, but in our time.  The rich world could help to escape from poverty and make it a realistic possibility by 2025.

Sachs’s book covers 18 chapters which combines his practical experience with sharp professional analysis and clear exposition on its topic. Since I make a summary of his book at this point, a brief summary of his discussion and arguments should be entailed. Sachs focuses on the ladder of economic development which helps the poorest of the poor to escape the misery of extreme poverty. Thus, they might start their own ascent up the ladder of economic development (p. 18-20). He visits some countries such as Malawi, Bangladesh, China, and India. 

During his visit to these countries, he finds that more than one million African children succumb to malaria each year. Roughly 900,000 Malawians infected with the HIV virus and died of AIDS because of lack of treatment and around140 million people are living in the flood plains of the deltas of the two great rivers in Bangladesh. Sachs realizes that the problem is simply that Malawians die this day as a result of their poverty because the world has overlooked impoverished people. Their incomes are around 50 cents per person per day or around 180 dollars per person per year. Sachs also focuses on the economic growth of some nations which is necessary to develop a better understanding of the forces shaping the productivity factors. This means that once the industrial revolution was under way, the same combination of modern technologies and social organizational could spread to other parts of the world which forces an increase in the global productions (p. 38-39).

Sachs emphasizes that due to the faults of the poor such as retrograde cultures and corrupt leadership impeding its country development. However, he also indicates that there are eight major categories of problems which can cause the economy to decline such as poverty trap, physical geography, fiscal trap, governance failures, cultural barriers, geopolitics, demographic trap, and lack of innovation. He then argues that the poorest countries could get out of the poverty trap unless their main economic development objectives aim to gain a foothold on the ladder (p. 56-73). In addition, Sachs proposes a new method for economic development called clinical economy which outlines the similarities between good clinical medicine and good development economics. Sachs indicates seven parts of the diagnostic checklist of any impoverished country such as the extent of extreme poverty, economic policy, fiscal framework, physical geography and human ecology, patterns of governance, cultural barriers to economics development, and geopolitics which a clinical economics approach will point the way to a better strategy (p. 74-89).

He argues that markets are powerful engines of development when the preconditions of basic infrastructure such as roads, power, human capital, education, and health are in place. He believes that it is encumbent upon successful market economies to bring the few areas of the world that still need help onto the ladder of development.

Sachs consults with countries in crisis such as in Bolivia in the mid 1980s and goes on to work with Russia in 1992, Poland in 1989, and other countries. He discusses the practical improvements in infrastructure, education, and health to eliminate extreme poverty by 2025 ⁽³⁾. Sachs distinguishes between three degrees of poverty: first, ‘extreme poverty’, representing one sixth of the world population or one billion people, who literally fight for survival every day; second, ‘moderate poverty’, representing 1.5 billion people, who live above the subsistence level but still struggle to make ends meet; third, ‘relative poverty’, representing 2.5 billion people, mostly in urban centers, who have access to housing, transportation, some education, and some nutrition. Sachs shows that the world economy has changed considerably since 1980, with over half the world experiencing economic progress in the past 25 years.  Sachs also put some criticisms to the main institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank which he believes that these organizations have tended to represent the interests of creditor banks rather than the poor and so have often exacerbated the problem of global poverty. 

Analysis:

The heart of Sachs’s book focuses on how to end global poverty. He raises how to eradicate poverty from the world and proposes some solutions on why his plan should be carried out. The globe is ensnared in a poverty trap - the combination of poor infrastructure, poor health care, and poor geography renders some societies to generate economic surplus for the future. Sachs states that extreme poverty ⁽⁴⁾ could be ended by 2025 if all the rich countries adhere to their previous funding declarations and contribute .7 percent of their GDP. Sachs criticizes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bush Administration for lacking concern for the poor instead of bullying approach to the world affairs. The United States (US) said it would contribute .7% of its GDP to help the poor countries. The rich countries including the US contributed to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) for alleviating poverty, disease and hunger and improvement of education and the lives of children and women. I reckon Sachs’s argument might be true at some points. If all the rich countries in the world could commit to what Sachs set in the GDP, it might more or less help to eradicate poverty. There is a strong reason for the presence of government’s policy to focus on this issue but they do little to resolve the extent to which it should attempt to deal with these issues.

Sachs uses a ladder of economic development to describe extreme poverty. He explains that people who live in extreme poverty could not seize even the bottom rung of the ladder.

This means that they do not have the basic necessities to maintain life such as food, clean water, and shelter. It is impossible to pursue education without basic sustenance. For instance, Sachs raises Malawi as ‘the perfect storm’ of extreme poverty ⁽⁵⁾. Malaria epidemics and AIDS culminate into a horrific maelstrom and the world community has so far offered little help. China is also one of the technical and prosperous countries. However, at some point in history, they blocked themselves off from the rest of the world; they lost all the opportunities due to the free flow of information and relatively free trade in the rest of the world. Sachs argues that the market forces as powerful factor to help end extreme poverty. At this point, I think Sachs is right because more competitive market is seen as a necessary response to the new global economic forces (Beresford, 2000). This means that a country’s ability to improve its standard of living over time is highly dependent on its ability to raise its out put per workers and thus competitive free markets work perfectly because they distribute resources to the most productive areas of the economy which could bring about to raise the living standard of its people. For example, the combined impact of global free market between nations could open up many new opportunities for wealth creation which could also attract the foreign investment. And it would help to create more jobs or new employment opportunities for the countries. As Beresford states that a free market or trade is supposed to benefit all countries by creating opportunities to produce and trade on a larger scale than is possible in as system where trade within nation is protected from outside competition (p. 80-83). Therefore, the growth of free market or trade have resulted in a growth in competition between nations to attract and retain finance investment capital, which is the basis of growth in jobs and the uptake of new technology, contribute to the country’s development and poverty alleviation.

Based on the title of Sachs’s book and the pre-conceived notions of how this task is difficult to achieve in the near future, Sachs shows a straightforward strategy to end poverty. He indicates the differences in the levels of economic development across the various countries of the world to establish the reasons for slow or stagnant economic growth in the less developed countries which he intends to get them to reach the first rung of the ladder of economic development to eradicate extreme poverty ⁽⁶⁾ by the year 2025. He shows that the economic development is not a zero sum match. He believes that everyone could win and he refers to the vision of Keynes on the end of poverty by the twentieth century in Britain and other industrialized countries during the Great Depression. Similarly, he indicates that the developed world is of the resources to benefit from it by elaborating a strategy of collective action to show that extreme poverty could be ended in our time. I agree with Sachs that that the collective action which is supplemented by the effective government provision of education, health, foreign assistance, and infrastructure could bring about economic success.

Sachs argues that the United States should not focus more on the military option to eradicate global terrorism than on the option of economic development which instead undermines some of the fundamental factors that breed terrorism.  Sachs argues if the rich countries offer 0.7 percent of the Gross National Product (GNP) to the poor countries as targeted, the extreme poverty could be eliminated as planned.

However, the United States currently offers only 0.15 percent of its Gross National Product in aid which is far below all other wealthy countries. I argue that in order to end extreme poverty, it is beneficial that all the industrialized countries around the world need to commit its commitments and help to contribute their aid to the poor countries as set in the Millennium Development Goal which aim to half extreme poverty by 2015 and end it by 2025. According to Kennedy, there are elements of choice in the process of adjusting to these challenges, but relatively few countries are well prepared to commit it given to their political and economic circumstances (p. 20-21).

Sachs has lots of experience in development and worked many countries in world. He details how he has applied his clinical economics around the world and emphasizes a clinical diagnosis of what each nation actually needs to eradicate extreme poverty.  He thinks that the United Nations could carry out the assessments and to coordinate aid. However, Sachs finds that the United Nations is reluctant to invest in the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.  Sachs claims that a 5 percent income tax on incomes over 200,000 dollars will suffice to bring the US foreign direct assistance up to the level needed to support the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.  This means that if all the rich countries could contribute 0.7 percent of its Gross National Product to alleviate the global poverty, he is confident that we could end of the extreme poverty by 2025. I think it is beneficial that he uses it as a system approach to consider all aspects such as poverty, fiscal policy, geography, governance, culture, geopolitics, innovation, and demographics which enhance to contribute to end poverty.

Sachs also argues that extreme poverty could be ended with investment of capital by the developed world. The ending deep poverty was not only a moral necessity for the developed world but it works to their positive good. I think his central point is that poverty has specific causes which some of relevant problems involved such as bad infrastructure, bad health, bad geography, and poor education. All of these factors could lead to poverty. In addition, the growth of investment capital is the basis of growth in jobs and the uptake of new technology in the sense that it is linked to the real economy. It is one of the major driving forces to enhance economic development and it is also the engines of wealth and income generation in the global economy through their capacity to enhance the volume of investment. However, it could also be solved with specific types of aid programs and can eliminate the worst of extreme poverty in the world, and would be relatively inexpensive for the developed world. 

Sachs indicates that extreme poverty has been being eliminated via free enterprise, trade, and investment in countries such as China, Bangladesh, and India. Sachs constructed a plan to improve education, local infrastructure, technology, and healthcare which are needed in the poor countries. For this reason, he argues that the long-term sustainable economic development can be fostered. Sachs aims to end extreme poverty as such action could expand the world economy. However, it could also eliminate the breeding grounds for disease, terrorism, and civil unrest. Sachs considers the creation of the preconditions for takeoff is a matter of building social overhead capital including railways, roads, ports, and shifting the economic setting from agriculture and trade to manufacture is beneficial. I also argue that by enhancing free enterprise, trade and investment could be one of important factors to contribute to end poverty. According to Smith argues that a freedom of trade and enterprise are considered as a means of increasing the real income of the country (pp. 698-699). 

I strongly agree with Sachs that the unspecific aid programs and lacking of clear goals will tend to fail. That is why some of the Western assistance has not produced the necessary effects for the poor countries. However, this failure does not mean that the Western aid fails but the more specific aid programs, the greater the capacity needed for execution. Thus, the greater need for robust and competent governance should be fostered. It is not clear how to make the aid programs in the absence of such governance that Sachs intends. Although, I reckon that the objectives of foreign aid have been many, the core of its program aims to promote the economic recovery and help encourage the growth of the underdeveloped countries. It is conceivable that the international situation confronting the nation in the future will realign the order of the importance of these objectives. Still other objectives have been present in the minds of the sponsors and of the administrators of the many foreign aid programs. For instance, there have been many foreign aid programs in many countries for many years which they have been aimed at several political and economic objectives, both short term and long term. However, it is hopeless to look for any single clear standard of these aid programs. More or less, I reckon that the foreign aid could contribute to the economic growth of other nations but specific goals and programs are required to effectively achieve its goal. But I still acknowledge that the judgment of the success of foreign aid programs is difficult. Therefore, the aid programs he was setting forth should be tailored to the specific countries and conditions which are based on the needs of those countries.

In addition, Sachs argues that the foreign aid ⁽⁷⁾ should be increased in order offer a greater return to private investment. I agree with Sachs that when these investments are made, the private entrepreneurs will earn a greater rate of return on their businesses which could trigger market-led economic growth. The market economics involve human capital, business capital, public institutional capital, infrastructure, and knowledge capital could challenge in the market and thus, the extreme poverty can be met.
He also argues that the extreme global poverty ⁽⁸⁾ could be eliminated by 2025 if the world rich countries intend to increase their combined foreign aid budgets between 135 billion and 195 billion dollar for the next decade and properly allocate that money. Sachs might be persuasive that the political, economic and ethical returns to improving the plight of 1.1 billion people would be enormous and thus, he brings a unique background to this issue. 

In this context, foreign aid is as an important ingredient in fighting poverty and accelerating economic growth in developing country, especially in the very poorest countries, where people may not be able to generate the resources needed to finance investment or health and education program. However, Sachs’s experiences in Russia did not turn out so well. I think what Sachs is proposing is that he aims to provide aid to countries to remove the barriers for them to become self sufficient. However, some barriers would be highly involved such as disease, lack of access to education, poverty traps, geography traps, and fiscal traps, among others. Poverty itself will take a bit longer although the huge amount of assistances and help from the rich countries for the poor countries. I also argue that although, aid has not always worked well, it has been critical for poverty reduction and growth in many countries and helped prevent event worse performance in many other countries. This means that many of the weaknesses of aid have more to do with the donors than with the recipients’ countries. For instance, a range of successful aid recipient’s countries such Korea, Botswana, Indonesia, Mozambique, and Uganda (Perkins, 2006).

Sachs argues that corruption and poor governance are one of the root causes of poverty and stresses that untreated diseases, like HIV/AIDS and malaria, climate change, and geographical factors play the major role. Sachs sees the issue of poverty from the point of view of real impoverished people due to the fact of his experiences.  The present aid situation is not adequate. While the rich countries pretend to help the poor, many poor countries pretend to reform (p. 266). Thus, the direct assistance from the rich countries to poor countries should increase dramatically but the funds should be used in six categories of key investments such as first, human capital to improve health, nutrition, and skills; second, business capital to improve technology in agriculture, industry, and services; third, infrastructure to improve roads, power, sanitation, transportation, and communications; fourth, natural capital to improve soils and ecology; fifth, public institutional capital to improve legal, governmental, and police systems; sixth, knowledge capital to improve scientific and technological expertise. Instead, if there is strong governance and institutions, it could help improve the environment for investment by reducing risk and increasing profitability. For instance, investors are more likely to make long term investments where they feel property rights are secure and their properties will not be confiscated. While low levels of corruption help reduce the costs of investment, reduce risks, and increase productivity.

However, corruption and poor governance are not the only problems, some factors are involved. For example, Bolivia got the critical handicaps on the international economic stage. The Bolivia’s exports demand a very high price due to the transportation difficulties. Thus, Bolivia could not build development on agricultural products’ exports or the low level manufactures which the developing countries often use as stepping stones. For this reason, it seems to me that Bolivia could not develop the export of services to increase its development but they need a certain economic foundation. In addition, he argues that the primary problems of development stem from poor governance in the developing world. However, I argue that although some of the well governed countries which have better resource, infrastructure, and health could hardly to produce significant, reliable economic growth. 

Sachs also emphasizes the Keynes’ theory about the scientific and technological innovation to maintain a long-term economics growth. Sachs predicts the growth during the throws of the Great Depression in America and his predictions become correct. This means that the technological and scientific innovation play major roles in alleviating extreme poverty in America, and the rest of the world. The scientific and technological enhancements permit goods and services to be traded freely which are impediments to the economic stability and growth in the underdeveloped countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. However, there is no one-size-fits-most panacea; I agree with Sachs that the importance of grassroots programs tailored to demographics, and specific needs. The rest of the world often thinks that the Africans are as one ethnicity which faces similar challenges. When this area considers as one of the neediest, it is no surprise that the small-scale operations aimed at specific countries. Therefore, when knowledge is shared, the world can take real steps toward the end of poverty. 

Sachs says that help would be required not just for a few years but for most of the period until 2025. Then, Sachs raises the question whether the developed world could afford to help the poor countries given the technological progress; the question is whether they could afford not to. The central strategy of Sachs aims to address the issue of how much the total official development assistances are required to achieve the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2025. Sachs also acknowledges that the governments should not invest in business capital. Particularly, when the governments manage businesses, they tend to do so for political rather than economic reasons. However, I think Sachs fails to consider the case of the government of Nigeria and Kenya which they allocate health and education investments in a nonpolitical manner. The assumption that Sachs made is that the governments are corrupt. 

In addition, Sachs focuses on the economic development such as Bolivia, Poland and Russia by highlighting on geography, climate, disease and level of infrastructure which he believes it has a significant impact on the speed of economic growth. For instance, roads are important not only to connect urban commercial facilities but to connect remote villages to markets so they can by goods more cheaply and sell their products at better prices to a larger market. In this way, it is true that better infrastructure such as building roads could be an important ingredient in the alleviation of rural poverty. I agree with Sachs that by ending the global poverty by 2025 does need the resolute efforts from both the rich countries and the poor countries. And thus, they could start a global compact between them. It is true that this strategy is required not only for scaling up the investments which could end poverty but also for a system of governance that could empower the poor. Hence, this approach could offer the tools to the impoverished countries across the world for sustainable development by indicating the plans and financing mechanisms which are needed to achieve this goal. 

Conclusion:

Finally, Sachs’s aim is to tackle the issues of underdevelopment and global poverty and how to end poverty by 2025 set in the Millennium Development Goal. He addresses certain issues which are one of the most compelling plans to alleviate poverty that economists often underestimate. He tries to show a big picture of how the whole societies emerge from poverty by explaining his work in Bolivia, India, Russia, Africa, China, and other countries integrating the set of solutions for economic, environmental, social, political problems which challenge the poorest countries. I come to several conclusions: First, Sachs might be right that poverty can be eradicated by 2025. Second, more needs to be done. Third, the current system is not properly focused. Fourth, we can all play a role to eradicate poverty. Although, there have been efforts made in the past but they were not well-planned and put in place as they should have been. I am strongly confident that Sachs’s book is a road map to end poverty and what I find most encouraging, useful, interesting, that the concepts and plans that he discusses could surely bring real tangible benefit to the poor areas. Although, many argue that lot of money has been offered to solve the problem. However, I agree with Sachs that the right amount of money must be allocated to the right things and with specific goals. I am confident that one time that this understanding might become the centre piece of the industrialized countries. However, despite the potential shortcomings of the specifics of his plan, I think that Sachs starts the conversation at the right spot that the poverty could end in our generations.  And, I think his book is quite challenging and ambitious and it is necessity to serve as a useful tool for the future academic research.

(By Bong Angkeara)