40 Unusual Websites you should Bookmark

1. beFunky – Awesome web app that turns images to cartoonized paintings and videos to cartoons.
2. DisplayWars – Incredibly simple tool that helps lots of people. Want to buy a new screen? DisaplyWars lets you compare screen sizes by mapping one display size on top of the other. For smaller items see SizeEasy.
3. [NO LONGER WORKS] DocSyncer – Synchronize office documents in your ‘My Documents’ folder with Google Docs account.
4. JotYou – By using this service you can send messages to others so they get them only when they are in the area you specify. [Video]
5. Keybr – Online keyboard to practice your touch typing skills.
6. Mint – The simplest way to manage your finances. More about Mint.
7. Numbr – Free disposable phone numbers.
8. PDFHammer – Merge, edit and rearrange PDF documents online.
9. PhoneSpell – Ever wondered if you phone number spells something memorable ? PhoneSpell will find it out.
10. SecondRotation / BuyMyTronics – Want to cash in on your old iPod ? Or mobile phone ? Both of these services will buy your old (broken) gadget, regardless of its condition.

Other

11. [NO LONGER WORKS] BeamIt – Send pictures, music, videos, docs or any other file to your cellphone.

12. BooksInMyPhone – Download and read copyright-free books on a mobile phone. Comes with its own book reader.
13. CallTheFuture – Schedule text messages and get them delivered (as a voicemail) on any desired date in the future.
14. CameraSummary – Extracts so called EXIF data from the images. Shows what model of digicam was used, image creation date and time, resolution settings, location and so on.
15. CanYouRunIt – One-click web app that inspects your PC’s hardware and software settings to determine whether or not it meets gaming requirements for a game of your choice.
16. CellSwapper – Transfer your current mobile contract to someone else. Or get a free plan with only a short term contract.
17. CivilAnswers – Free legal assistance.
18. ControlC – This small cross-platform (Win, Mac, Linux) monitors your clipboard and saves everything online.
19. Definr – Incredibly fast online dictionary. It takes abt 14 ms to lookup a word.
20. Drop.io – By far the coolest service for private file collaboration and transfers. Add files by email, send voice messages from phone, etc.
21. File-Destructor 2 – Generates files (Doc, PDF, … ) that look genuine but won’t launch properly. Basically, it’s a tool that helps you put all the blame on your “faulty computer”.
22. [NO LONGER WORKS] File-encryptor – Secure encryption tool to freely encrypt/decrypt sensitive files online. Quite handy for sending over sensitive files.
23. [NO LONGER WORKS] FlashPhone – Free flash-based SIP-softphone. Simply add your SIP account and you’re good to go. No need to install anything.
24. Google Mobilizer – Makes your fav. websites mobile friendly. Must-have for your mobile bookmarks.
25. GetMyFBIfile – Here you can generate letter templates that you can use to request for a free copy of your FBI file.
26. LetterMeLater – Offers one feature that your email doesn’t have, “˜the ability to schedule when an email should be sent’. Coolest part about, you can use it directly from your email program (GMail, Outlook, etc.).
27. [NO LONGER WORKS] Mailbucket – Finally, a tool to help you forward emails to your feedreader.
28. Mobical – Over-the-air mobilebackup and restore service. Backup phone contacts, calendar, bookmarks and settings.
29. [NO LONGER WORKS] MoDazzle – Access Facebook, LinkedIn and dozens of other web services (weather, stock quotes, etc.) via email or mobile text messaging. Update Facebook ‘status’, get un-read messages from Facebook inbox, get someone’s profile info from LinkedIn, and lots more.
30. Nanoscan – Super fast yet compehensive online virus scanner.
31. OhDon’tForget – It does only one thing, but does it really well: Schedule text message reminders to any phone.
32. ProQuo – Reduce junk mail by removing your personal data from telemarketing lists.
33. PPCalc – Comprehensive Paypal fees calculator.
34. Rondee – Fast, easy and free way to arrange phone conference calls with as many people as you want.
35. SpokenText – Convert PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files, ,RSS news feeds, emails and web pages to speech.
36. Sullr – Obtain information about telephone lines in reverse mode. Get address, location, owner’s name etc.
37. WakerUpper – Schedule wake-up phone calls. Lots of useful features.
38. WebMarkers – Adds additional option to your ‘Print’ menu that lets you print documents (or webpages) directly to the web. [Screenshot]
39. WhatShouldIReadNext – Book recommendation service. Simply enter the author and title of your latest book and it will give you a list of recommended readings.
40. WorldTaxiMeter – Calculate the cost of a taxi ride in a number of top cities worldwide (London, New York, Rome “¦). Accessible both from the web and mobile phone.

Nido Qubein: Why Immigrants Become Millionaires

Why Is Ukraine a Cage for Entrepreneurs?

The challenges of doing business in Ukraine

All Ukrainians wanted to cast off the yoke of the communist dictatorship and the planned, ration-based socialist economy. What did they obtain after succeeding in doing so? Most people did not receive a better life. The “reforms” were such that fraud and embezzlement of public property were not just permissible but even prestigious.
How can Ukrainians come to terms with this fraudulent and largely criminal business? Most importantly, how can things be put back on the right track? Without a free market and the energy of entrepreneurs, Ukraine will continue to eke out a miserable existence. In this series of articles, I attempt to expose the main problems faced by Ukrainian business and show what alternative paths of development exist. The first instalment is about the importance of free entrepreneurship for the economy and how Ukraine affects it.
It is often said that privately owned companies seek only their own benefit, and the country's economy can do well without them. Following this line of reasoning, state-owned enterprises are the only ones that secure the welfare of the entire nation. Most Ukrainian politicians and government officials subscribe to the idea of seeking an optimal balance between the two types of companies.
Another widespread opinion is that private companies require efficient owners. It follows that, lacking such owners, companies must remain property of the state. There is also the well-known view that all forms of property need to be supported and developed. Is this really true? Evidently, it is not that simple.
ENTERPRENEURIAL PROFIT AS COMMON GOOD
If there is no economic profit, there is no accumulation of capital or investment nationwide, and this  means that the conditions for growth in production, more jobs and R&D are not in place. This is axiomatic. Profitability can be found only in a market economic system with private property.
With few exceptions, there was no economic profit under feudalism and previous social systems. The dynamic of economic development was essentially nonexistent. Some people noted that both profitability and investments were part of the planned economy under socialism. Yes, profits indeed existed. But were they economic profits, i.e., the result of economic initiative put into practice? No, they were obtained by confiscating the property, goods and labour of peasants, urban workers and scientific institutions and by expropriating private capital accumulated in tsarist Russia. The Soviet government also claimed land rent and in-kind rent, exploited the military and convicts who did penal labour and earned income on war indemnities and the lend-lease in the Second World War, etc.
The profits were reaped not by enterprises that were economical, innovative or otherwise economically efficient, but by those whose products were sold at prices centrally fixed at a level higher than unit cost. Meanwhile, some other enterprises were forced to sell their products below unit cost, so they were unprofitable according to the economic plan.
Prices were fixed in a centralized fashion, which was the fundamental distinct trait of the planned economy. Profits were reaped by the state and the state then distributed them among certain economic entities. As the sole proprietor of all profits, accumulated capital and investments, it did not need other entities willing to seek and obtain them. That system was fundamentally flawed and could not be successful, because it failed to stimulate entrepreneurial activity, which is the human initiative that leads to the production and realisation of innovative consumer values, the application of innovative production technology and/or the opening of new markets.
The means of production and labour have no sense without entrepreneurial ideas and actions. It is only jointly that means of production, labour and the organisational efforts of entrepreneurs create value and become part of it. Land and monetary capital that are involved in creating value also need to be factored in. This pertains to any industry or type of economic activity, such as the manufacturing industry, commerce, transport, construction, communications, utility services, hotel and restaurant business, legal services and so on.

Some companies receive profits exclusively due to special entrepreneurial qualities, and these profits are the difference between revenue and production costs after interest has been paid on the capital received. Without ownership of a company, a person will not show entrepreneurial qualities. Nor will he channel his own and borrowed money to establish a new enterprise and develop it.
Notably, entrepreneurship plays an active, creative part in the economic process unlike other, passive components.
Entrepreneurship should be distinguished from scientific research, the creation of innovative products, design, branding and building a typical technological process. All these elements are prerequisites for manufacture and business, but without entrepreneurship, they remain on paper only.
Entrepreneurs are producers, but they do not simply implement what has already been designed and developed. On the contrary, they themselves initiate and implement the best of possible products rather than simply promote their own ideas. They also advance their products on the market, seek the best and most favourable markets, and create and increase value.
This special entrepreneurial process yields better products, the highest productivity, minimum costs and the best supply/demand ratio. The output may include any consumer goods – products, services, information, etc.
Another important trait of entrepreneurs is their contribution to creating value and generating revenue. Other components – land rent, equipment cost, payroll and bank interest – are relatively stable quantities determined by average market values.
Entrepreneurial profit, just like the efforts of entrepreneurs, is in no way linked to average values. This performance indicator is always individual and depends on the specific invention as well as on consumer perceptions.
Entrepreneurial profit is, as a rule, short-lived. Its maximum value is achieved at an initial stage when new production ideas are implemented or a new good is manufactured, as long as it is unique.
With time, others begin to master the new production methods, production volume grows and higher demand for such innovations is met. Then the size of the entrepreneurial profit decreases, while other components of net profit (rent, interest, payroll and depreciation) remain virtually unchanged.
Entrepreneurial profit disappears completely when organizational and technological improvements spread throughout the industry and when no one has an individual advantage in terms of economy, or when a new product begins to be manufactured by all competing companies and consumer demand is fully met.
Thus, entrepreneurial activity as such is creative, because it develops production. An entrepreneur cannot afford to rest on his laurels. His stimuli are of a special and extraordinary kind. Entrepreneurial profit may be superhigh if his proposal is revolutionary, as was the case with the railway and the steam engine or, more recently, the Internet and its new operational capabilities.
By standing still, an entrepreneur risks losing everything and going bankrupt. There is no development, organization, enrichment and progress of society without entrepreneurial activity.
ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY AS AN ENEMY OF THE PLANNED ADMINISTRATIVE ECONOMY
Why did socialism remove entrepreneurs, and can the CEOs of Soviet plants and factories (and chiefs of ministries and agencies) be called entrepreneurs? In some cases, Soviet directors exhibited entrepreneurial qualities: they reequipped their plants, implemented better technology, serialized new products, optimized production capacity, etc.
But they never became entrepreneurs. First, they did not receive any of the profit resulting from their innovations. Instead, they only received their salaries which, truth be told, included various bonuses and stimuli, special one-time payments for technical upgrades and personal benefits awarded by ministries.
In other words, such improvements could never materialize without the consent of the owner (the state, or its ministry), which viewed plant directors exclusively as hired labour. Second, the changes made at state-owned enterprises were not, in essence, innovations because they only replicated — in a planned economy — the achievements of other entrepreneurial entities, which were normally located abroad. Typically, they did so inaccurately, because foreign models often had to be modified or altered.
These Soviet novelties simply propagated innovations already present on other markets. The best equipment used in the most advanced sectors of the Soviet economy (microelectronics, radio electronics, electronic engineering and rocket construction) was foreign-made.
In general terms, three waves of technological import may be singled out: during industrialization; after the Second World War (American lend-lease and war indemnities imposed on Germany); and in the 1970s and 1980s, when a strong flow of petrodollars after crises in world energy allowed the USSR to purchase new equipment in the West.
Soviet constructors who designed products that were serialized by the industry, from footwear to cars to ships and nuclear reactors, were copied from foreign specimens, including those procured by the Soviet special services.
ENTREPRENEURS NEED THE OPEN SEA AND FINANCIERS NEED QUIET HARBOURS
What is the connection between entrepreneurship and investments? Where do investments come from to meet the needs of entrepreneurs? The source of these investments is citizens, groups of citizens or nations that invest in manufacture, business and transactions in order to receive profits. If investments are made by private individuals who seek the highest return, they will most likely go precisely to entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurial activity and financial business are fundamentally different. The former seeks to bring together factors and components of the production process to create supply on the market of consumer goods, while the latter is aimed at profitable and risk-free investment of money and is not much concerned about where to invest – manufacture, bank deposits, stocks or bonds, precious metals, real estate, financial, currency or other speculations.
An enterprise is designed to make new products, search for markets and select the best technology, means of production and methods of its organization. It is, in essence, a producer of commodities. The goal of business is to preserve the value of money by receiving passive income – interest, discount, rent, etc. This type of economic activity is passive in that it only reacts to changes in prices, profits and value of capital all of which are secured primarily through entrepreneurial activity.
An entrepreneur is not afraid to take risks. He does not even give thought to risk when he starts a business. In contrast, financiers shun risks, because they do not know all the capabilities of enterprises and markets; they cannot be sure what a particular government will do or how key financial markets will change. Even in these conditions they have to meet their commitments before investors.
They are mediators with interest in financial stability and predictability. Of course, financial profiteers earn precisely on “risks” – they like instability and abrupt currency and price fluctuations which enable them to buy lower and sell higher. Entrepreneurs are interested in innovations and their implementation, while financiers are very cautious about innovations. They would rather wait until a new thing is fully implemented and guarantees stable positive results. Investing financiers spread, rather than introduce, innovations.
Entrepreneurs need free access to resources and markets, laissez-faire and independence from the state, land owners, trade unions and creditors. In contrast, financiers are not interested in freedom and resources. They are ready to cooperate with the authorities, land owners, or anyone for that matter, in order to reduce risks and share them with others. This is why bankers, exchange brokers and investors do not, quite unlike entrepreneurs, seek political freedom and instead try to find ways to cooperate with the existing government regardless of how corrupt or totalitarian it may be.

In the USSR, there were no entrepreneurs or profit-oriented private investments. The economy was deprived of an ability to generate profits by cutting production costs and offering new consumer values on the market. In socialist times, the Ukrainian community reverted to a social system in which the economy was unable to self-improve, obtain entrepreneurial profits and efficiently use them, while Soviet society was incapable of cultural and intellectual growth.
IS THE PROFIT-ORIENTED ENTREPRENEURIAL ECONOMY WORKING TODAY? IF NOT, WHY NOT?
Several prerequisites must be in place for a profit-oriented entrepreneurial economy to function. First, prices must not be set on an individual basis. Instead, an average price should result from the interaction of all sellers and buyers of a certain product on the market. This price correlates with average costs in the industry and goes up or down depending on the supply/demand ratio. This is market, rather than administrative, pricing at work. In this case, price is an external factor for a specific enterprise and a common quantity for every player, independent of individual costs.
Second, entrepreneurial profit emerges only in companies that outperform others by installing newer or more productive equipment, using better or cheaper materials or organizing the production and administrative processes more efficiently.
Another source of profit is pricing: when an entrepreneur first comes out on the market with a fundamentally new product, he sets a price that is much higher than that of traditional products.
The same thing happens when a businessman opens new markets for his traditional products. Other entrepreneurs who have not achieved similar results incur production and marketing costs that are on the level of market prices or higher, and thus their activity does not bring that much profit.
In this case, entrepreneurs are content with bonuses for special managerial functions (formulating the overall conception, finding markets, landing large contracts, involving highly qualified CEOs, etc.) or receive rent payments as owners of land, minerals, buildings, communications and so on. The corresponding expenditures are, of course, part of production cost. Entrepreneurial profit is only one part of all profits received by company owners, so when it disappears, other components remain.
Third, entrepreneurship as a special type of human activity has a special existential niche. It brings together components of the manufacturing process and marketing procedure and secures the operation of a company established for this purpose. Success depends on how well the components are made to fit together, as well as the choice of equipment, labour and technology.
Entrepreneurial activity is also special in that it involves a constant search for new businesses and technologies; other (better) use of old equipment, buildings and land; closing old unprofitable companies and creating new ones in terms of the manufactured product, branch of industry and method of production. All these changes are innovative.
A true entrepreneur lives by innovating. Innovations are what enables businesses to put products on the market whose value greatly exceeds that of similar products made by other suppliers. Products of this kind bring the owner temporary entrepreneurial superprofits. (This highly important conclusion was first formulated by Joseph Schumpeter who once taught at the University of Czernowitz and served as the Austrian Minister of Finance.)
Those who fail to constantly innovate lose the initiative and zeal and soon stop being entrepreneurs as such, because their business loses its competitive edge, becomes unprofitable and eventually goes bankrupt or is closed.
Fourth, the entrepreneur is not, for all intents and purposes, a creditor, investor or financial partner. A person who seeks to accumulate and save money, receive interest on capital and make successful temporary investments never turns into an entrepreneur. He is a financier. The goal of an investing financier is to reduce the risks of capital placement (if possible), diversify investments, pull out of unsuccessful investments in good time and move his money elsewhere. A person who has accrued savings is primarily interested in investing in property, stocks, land and whatever else might secure the highest interest, dividend or rent.
None of the above pertains to the entrepreneur. His task is to organize and improve a specific business. Thus, if he has to also search for money needed to implement his business idea, solve tasks to minimize investment risks, etc., it will only hamper him and will hurt the economy in general.
Therefore, it can be concluded that financial business has to be a separate and specialized sector. Entrepreneurship cannot develop and be successful if the economy does not have favourable conditions allowing easy access to credit and investment market resources.
Fifth, anyone can become an entrepreneur, but he must have an intellectual, businesslike, socially and politically independent personality. This enables a businessman to carry out an objective financial analysis of existing production facilities, do marketing research, select the best new ideas in terms of design, technology and production and invite highly qualified specialists.
This kind of freedom is impossible in an unfree, closed, undemocratic, utterly bureaucratic and corrupt society. It also follows from this that a government employee, a law enforcement officer, a serviceman, a tax inspector, etc. cannot be an entrepreneur. Where people like that do “business” social goods are embezzled, bribery is forced upon citizens and criminally punishable abuse of office is rampant. Moreover, if an enterprise is launched and controlled by bureaucrats who cannot possibly have entrepreneurial qualities, it will not bring profits. In other words, n most cases it is impossible to adjust Soviet enterprises to a competitive market economy.
Sixth, a profit-driven entrepreneurial economy requires a competitive environment and a free market. The entrepreneur has to seek profits that arise from new combinations and improved business. If he is a monopolistic supplier of a special product on a certain market, he will objectively be able to set a much higher price compared to products in the same group on the same market. This price will reflect the real value and will include entrepreneurial profit as payment for innovation. However, a monopoly on innovation is short-lived in conditions of a competitive market economy.
Other producers also desire to receive innovation-generated profits and will try to start producing the unique product themselves as soon as possible. The growing supply will meet the spiking demand, and a monopolistically high price will go down. In this way, the price will begin to reflect production costs. Thus, competition destroys innovation-generated superprofits, and this is a positive phenomenon. The initial monopolistic supplier will be forced to come up with new types of products.

In other words, the entrepreneurial function would not be performed without competition, and a monopolistic supplier of a certain good would be content to receive stable superhigh profits and, instead of generating new business ideas, he would abuse his position by independently hiking prices, reducing the product’s quality, misreporting his profits, etc. So the entrepreneur himself is not idealist. He wants to maintain his monopolistic position as long as possible and tries to eliminate competition.
Artificially created and natural monopolies and their protection under the government, which was part and parcel of the socialist economy (and could not be otherwise because the state, as the sole owner, also craved for monopolistic superprofits) and survives, to an extent, in the current Ukrainian realities. However, the above suggests that this is a road to degradation. Moreover, entrepreneurial activity alone – without the government's involvement to support competition and overcome monopolism – may fail to produce positive social results and may, to the contrary, lead to economically unacceptable business structures and skewing the market.
Seventh, society must work out a tolerant and reverent attitude to entrepreneurs, both at the everyday and state level. This is the starting point for the mental and physical attitude of government officials, tax inspectors and policemen to businessman as a social group and to entrepreneurial expenditures and profits (including superprofits). If these financial resources that entrepreneurs have are viewed as undeserved, unfair and earned at the cost of “exploiting the working class”, taxes will be superhigh; policemen and inspectors will be unduly biased; and the investment and business climate will be unfavourable.
Social acceptance and intolerance have to be based on the understanding that entrepreneurial profit originates from labour. In contrast, monopolistic superprofits and corrupt political rent generated by certain businessmen must become a target of social obstruction and punitive persecution on the part of government, law enforcement and judicial bodies. Therefore, it is important to discriminate socially useful types of profits, such as entrepreneurial and innovation-based profits, and harmful and illegal profits (resulting from monopolies, corruption, profiteering, etc.) and stimulate companies to focus on the former. This may not be an easy thing to do, because profits, just like money, do not smell.
UKRAINE AS A CAGE FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Does Ukraine possess the above features and meet the requirements set for a profit-oriented entrepreneurial economy? A hostile attitude to private entrepreneurs – independent, innovative and creative – is undisguised and widespread in Ukraine. The public has formed an image of in impudent and greedy fraudster. Most people perceive the state as the sole benefactor that guarantees justice and develops the manufacturing industry. Mentally, Ukrainian society tolerates entrepreneurs as the unnecessary addition to the freedoms and property rights enjoyed by the citizens. Tax inspectors and policemen have been set on entrepreneurs like hounds. Fiscal pressure has cut off energy supplies to entrepreneurs.
Only those who cooperate with officials and those who have billions command respect because they can nicely reward a judge or a journalist. Entrepreneurs are not being raised or educated in Ukraine. Specialized colleges and institutes equip students with technological expertise and knowledge of economic relations in their respective industry (manufacture, construction, transport, commerce, tourism, the restaurant and hotel business, design, etc.) but not with the skills needed for entrepreneurial activity. Neither are individual approaches or nonstandard solutions encouraged. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that college graduates look for jobs only in existing organizations and fail to find them. They do not even think about starting their own business.
Our country lacks the cult of inviolability of a private individual and the protection of personal information. The rights and freedoms of people are not a supreme value like in the Western world.
The entrepreneurial sector in Ukraine is very narrow, sparse and marginal. The authorities view it as a place for small-scale flee market transactions and related industries (delivery, transport and financial services). The entire system of financial and legal relationships between the authorities and entrepreneurs is built on this foundation.
It is still “permissible” to engage in individual activities that involve providing various intellectual and other professional services. There are few other sectors where entrepreneurial zeal can be seen: residential construction and business property development, entertainment centres, resorts, shopping malls, etc.
Due to destructive privatization and government-backed elimination of competition, the new owners of industrial, communications and agricultural enterprises inherited by Ukraine from the USSR never turned into entrepreneurs. They are content to receive other types of net profits – corrupt and monopolistic profits, various subsidies and soft loans, rent on mineral mines and fertile land, etc. Thus, most of them continue to lose their markets and revenue.
Unfortunately, entrepreneurs are unable to obtain sufficient financial means to develop production. The state is of no help, not even in R&D and socially significant projects. Instead, it sets tax traps to freeze revenue and confiscate property. Moreover, since Ukraine became independent in 1991, sky-high bank interest rates have made bank loans unaffordable. Bank loans do not account for even one-tenth of the demand in the national economy. The annual increase in credit resources has been at a mere UAH 60-70 billion in the past several years, which is less than five per cent of Ukraine’s GDP.
But independent entrepreneurs have received virtually none of this money – it is distributed among those who are close to the government, own financials institutions and who are not entrepreneurs by definition. When resources are lacking, there is no sense to seek innovations, manufacture new products and build the necessary equipment. That is the reason why there are no Ukrainian-made innovative goods to be seen.
The entrepreneurial sector accounts for an unacceptably low part of the national economy and is mostly marginal, which hampers the profitability and progress of Ukraine’s economy. An extremely heavy burden is placed on the national economy by unprofitable companies – at least 45 per cent of the total number in some years and 56 per cent during the crisis in 2009. This means that true entrepreneurs did not have access to such companies. It is also worth noting that the lion’s share of profits is secured by the financial and credit sector of the economy. Approximately one-third of enterprises in the industrial sector make any profit, and of these no more than 10 per cent are entrepreneurial, according to my calculations.
Another roadblock is the non-market character of Ukraine's economy: prices are set by the authorities, certain commodities are regulated in an administrative fashion; the central government interferes with the distribution of financial resources; the government puts restraints on foreign economic activity and so on. Therefore, Ukraine has found itself in an impasse — there is no future without entrepreneurship.

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Who Wants To Be The Next Mark Zuckerberg? Everyone, Apparently

• Izzat Jarudi: Startups are far sexier than standard career paths like finance, law, or medicine. In this photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg addresses students of Moscow's State University in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

You hear it at companies, universities, government agencies, and nonprofits — everyone, it seems, is working for a “startup” these days. Walk by a mom-and-pop vendor offering free cheese samples in a supermarket and they will tell you their dairy is a startup. At a recent healthcare talk, even noted surgeon and writer Atul Gawande labeled his new cross-disciplinary research center, Ariadne Labs, a startup.

Perhaps the most smitten group is young people. Startups are far sexier than standard career paths like finance, law, or medicine. According to a recent Gallup poll, an astonishing 43 percent of 5th to 12th graders want to be entrepreneurs.

According to a recent Gallup poll, an astonishing 43 percent of 5th to 12th graders want to be entrepreneurs.

It seems easy to explain from an economic perspective. With examples like Mark Zuckerberg dropping out of school and becoming billionaires at age 20-something, what other pursuit promises so much reward, so quickly? It also takes a lot less capital to start a technology company than it did 15 years ago during the dot-com boom — you can develop a consumer website or mobile app with a developer friend, a few laptops with open-source software and an account with Amazon Web Services. If you attract a significant following, venture capitalists might back you with millions to scale up for acquisition or an IPO.

Why slave away in a bank or a law firm for years to make managing director or partner when you can make 10 times the salary or more in a few years tinkering in your parents’ garage? Plus, those traditional careers are no longer as secure as they used to be as a result of the recession.

But there is more to the unprecedented appeal of startups than quick money and low entry costs. Startups offer young people a unique combination of career virtues: potential to have rapid and large-scale impact on society, partnership in a venture that is self-organized and egalitarian, and a set of challenges unlike any other they could encounter in an entry-level job.

Startups — with their organizational blank slates and disruptive business models — can bring about radical change. Companies like Facebook and Twitter have had far more impact on the economy and social behavior than any corporate deal or medical breakthrough a 20 or 30-something could have contributed to in the last 10 years.

Many start-ups also promise, at least in their early stages, to be governed by principles of equality. Founders tend to be a small group of friends or like-minded people who respect each other’s talents and ideas. If you go to many startup websites’ “About” section, such asEtsy or Zappos, you’ll commonly see mission statements reflecting these ideals.

Startups offer potential to have rapid and large-scale impact on society, partnership in a venture that is self-organized and egalitarian, and a set of challenges unlike any other…

Though it may look easy, building a viable business amid fierce competition is relentlessly challenging. In an entry-level job, hierarchy and a division of labor can help prevent an inexperienced 20-something’s actions from hurting an organization. There are no such guarantees in budding startups with 90 percent failure rates. Founders rarely have job descriptions. They often need to juggle everything from sales and marketing to operations, technology and finance for years with little compensation, sporadic feedback, and long hours. Yet young entrepreneurs thrive on this pressure: It lets them engage with a myriad of social and intellectual obstacles and triumph based on a mix of talent, grit, and luck.

That prompts the question: Are young people drawn more to startups than the rest of us or are they simply more capable of enduring the heavy personal and financial costs associated with sustained entrepreneurship? Experienced technology investors like Peter Thiel and Paul Graham tend to take the latter, more pragmatic view. In advising hundreds of startups through his seed accelerator Y Combinator, Graham has observed the cutoff for generating investor excitement to be age 32.

But it’s likely that both views apply: Young people are more willing and able to pursue the startup path. And for those of us above the tender age of 32, the career model of young founders also suggests qualities that we should strive for in our professions, no matter how big or old our organizations are: Find a project at work that is impactful, collaborative, and challenging and you might feel some of the same passion that comes with a team building something new for others.

15 WEBSITES WITH ENGAGING USER EXPERIENCES

1. Black Negative (http://www.blacknegative.com)

2. Adidas Design Studio (http://www.adidasdesignstudios.com)

3. Project Re: Brief by Google (http://www.projectrebrief.com)

4. The Interactive UK Energy Consumption Guide

 (http://www.evoenergy.co.uk/uk-energy-guide)
 

5. Beyonce (http://www.beyonce.com)
 

6. Reebok (http://www.reebok.com)
 

7. Optimo Hats (http://www.optimohats.com)
 

8. Piccsy Pitchdeck (http://www.piccsy.com/investors)
 

9. Captain Dash (http://captaindash.com)
 

10. Orange Sprocket (http://www.orangesprocket.com)
 

11. WWF Earth Hour 2012 (http://assets.wwf.org.uk/custom/foodstory)
 

12. Onst Creative (http://www.onstcreative.com)
 

13. Nike Air Jordan (http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/aj2012)
 

14. Tim Roussilhe Portfolio (http://timothee-roussilhe.com)
 

15. The Thomas Oliver Band (http://thethomasoliverband.com)
 

Inspired to add interactivity and engagement in your designs? Have a favorite from this list? Let us know in the comments!

By Jessica Mooni

Famous entrepreneurs and their stories

We all know of these famous entrepreneurs - people who through their wealth andbusiness success became famous. Just think of the likes of John D. Rockefeller orRichard Branson.

Moguls and tycoons, they are people that had built empires from their businesses and thrived. They are the envy of the common folk, but as per the definition of entrepreneur: they take great risk for the potential of great reward.

This section of my site is dedicated to these famous entrepreneurs who were not necessarily born great, but achieved greatness through their business savvy and the indomitable entrepreneurial spirit.

They are a financial inspiration for the rest of us and by studying their lives and methods we might learn valuable lessons regarding wealth and success.

If they were not born great, what is it that makes them great? Is there one thing that they all have in common or are each and every one different?

Whether they achieved their wealth through oil likeJohn D. Rockefeller or computer software like, currently one of the most famous entrepreneurs, Bill Gates, they all had their fair share of trials and tribulations that they needed to overcome. Valuable insights can be learned from their struggles and how they overcame it.

Do they see the world in the same way that we do or is there something radically different? We can glean insights from their books or the books about them. Thesefamous entrepreneurs may have something valuable to teach us and we have the opportunity to learn by studying them and their history.

In all this we need to remember that they are only humans and they have their own faults and weakness. How they overcome these are what is important to me and the other entrepreneurs out there.

It is mostly their businesses that made these men and women famous. But some of them achieve fame by other means, whether through entertainment like Oprah Winfrey or through their flamboyant lifestyle like Aristotle Onassis.

Whichever means they use or have used, they are custodians of great wealth and with that great wealth come problems that we can only imagine: the extra security needed, the loss of privacy or fights over inheritance. Some have overcome all obstacles and founded dynasties - wealth to last generations.

And then there are the heirs - the inheritors of great wealth, who either spend it all recklessly or have to climb out of the giant footsteps of their forbearers and walk their own path - great challenges in their own right.

These men and women are well known and their fame (or infamy) is indisputable. I set out to learn as much as I can about each and every one of them and then to use theirmethods and techniques in my own life as entrepreneur and my struggle for financial freedom.

The sheer size of the achievements of these famous entrepreneurs is inspiring to me and maybe you and I may be fortunate enough to learn something from these great men and women. All these famous men and women share the same spirit - the Spirit of the Entrepreneur.

List of famous entrepreneurs

• Benjamin Franklin (1/17/1706 - 4/17/1790) - Printing (Pennsylvania Gazette)
• Cornelius Vanderbilt (5/27/1794 - 1/4/1877) - Industry (Shipping & Railroads)
• Andrew Carnegie (11/25/1835 - 8/11/1919) - Industry (US Steel)
• John Pierpont Morgan (4/17/1837 - 3/31/1931) - Banking (JP Morgan)
• John D. Rockefeller (7/8/1839 - 5/23/1937) - Oil (Standard Oil)
• Thomas Edison (2/11/1847 - 10/18/1931) - Inventions (General Electric)
• Henry Ford (7/30/1863 - 4/7/1947) - Automotive (Ford)
• Jean Paul Getty (12/12/1892 - 6/6/1975) - Oil (Getty Oil Company)
• Walt Disney (12/5/1901 - 12/15/1966) - Entertainment (Disney)
• Ray Kroc (10/5/1902 - 1/14/1984) - Fast Food (McDonalds)
• Howard Hughes (12/24/1905 - 4/5/1976) - Aviation (TWA)
• Aristotle Onassis (1/1/1906 - 3/15/1975) - Shipping (Olympic)
• Estee Lauder (7/1/1908 - 4/26/2004) - Cosmetics (Estee Lauder)
• Sam Walton (3/29/1918 - 4/5/1992) - Retail (Walmart)
• Mary Kay Ash (5/12/1918 - 11/22/2001) - Cosmetics (Mary Kay Inc)
• Karl Albrecht (2/20/1920 -) - Retail (Aldi Stores)
• Akio Morita (1/26/1921 - 10/3/1999) - Electronics (Sony)
• Donald Gordon (1929 - ) - Insurance (Liberty Life) & Real Estate (Liberty International)
• George Soros (8/12/1930 - ) - Investments (Quantum Fund)
• Warren Buffett (8/30/1930 - ) - Investments (Berkshire Hathaway)
• Rupert Murdoch (3/11/1931 - ) - Media (Newscorp)
• Herb Kelleher (3/12/1931 - ) - Aviation (Southwest Airlines)
• Ted Turner (11/19/1938 - ) - Media (CNN)
• Carlos Slim Helu (1/28/1940 - ) - Telecoms (Telmex)
• Anita Roddick (10/23/1942 - 9/10/2007) - Retail (The Body Shop)
• Larry Ellison (8/17/1944 - ) - Computers (Oracle)
• Donald Trump (6/14/1946 - ) - Real Estate (Trump Organization)
• Bernard Arnault (3/05/1949 - ) - Luxury Goods (Louis Vitton Moet Hennesy - LVMH)
• Lakshmi Mittal (6/15/1950 - ) - Steel (Arcelor Mittal)
• Richard Branson (7/18/1950 - ) - Business (Virgin Companies)
• Oprah Winfrey (1/29/1954 - ) - Media (Harpo Productions)
• Steve Jobs (2/24/1955 - ) - Computers (Apple)
• Bill Gates (10/28/1955 - ) - Software (Microsoft)
• Mukesh Ambani (4/19/1957 - ) - Industry (Reliance Industries)
• Debbi Fields Rose (9/18/1957 - ) - Retail (Mrs Fields)
• Eike Batista (11/03/1957 - ) - Oil (OGX)
• Deborah Meaden (2/11/1959 - ) - Holidays (Weststar)
• Jeff Bezos (1/12/1964 - ) - Internet (Amazon)
• Michael Dell (2/23/1965 - ) - Computers (Dell)
• JK Rowling (7/31/1965 - ) - Entertainment (Harry Potter)
• Pierre Omidyar (6/21/1967 - ) - Internet (Ebay)
• Elon Musk (6/28/1971 - ) - Internet (PayPal)
• Stella McCartney (9/13/1981 - ) - Fashion (Stella McCartney)
• Mark Zuckerberg (5/14/1984 - ) - Internet (Facebook)