Kelley James
Last night I went out to the Keyclub for my friend Shirley Truong's birthday in West Hollywood. Tony Lucca opened up for the headliner Kelley James. Kelley and company played a set that brought the half empty Key Club to a crowded house. His popular song 'In the mean time' had the audience swaying and screaming out the song along with him. I wasn't, because it was my first time seeing him.
What really impressed me was the fact that he covered a number of hip hop songs. He played Snoop Dogg's 'Gin and Juice', Kanye's 'Better, faster, stronger', and one of my top five songs of all time, Notorious B.I.G.'s 'Juicy'.
If you want to check out some more of his songs you can go to his Myspace page. I was impressed by the music. Check it out.
I hope you had an amazing birthday Shirley!
Photos of the night:
Website Reviews
Every once in awhile I will scour the web and blogs out there to see what is the latest and greatest in technology and business. Here are some of the most recent websites I have found and my thoughts on them.
KIVA.ORG
Kiva is a site where users can connect with and lend money to small businesses in the developing world. Loans can be as small as $25.00 up to the full amount requested. The money lent has a full loan cycle like a standard loan, but one major difference is that you will receive updates regarding how the business you sponsored is performing. Kiva is a unique website that creates a space for even the smallest investor to contribute to others with talent and ambition, but necessarily the starting ingredients.
MINT.COM
Mint is an online tool to help you organize your financial data by pulling in data from your online accounts into one central account. What is so great about Mint is that it automatically categorizes your transactions. The categorization is not exactly perfect, but you can relabel transactions yourself with a one time change or by setting a rule for particular transactions. The graph interface organizes your data into convenient pie charts for your visual appetite.
DOCSTOC.COM
DocStoc is an online library of business documents shared by its user community. Currently DocStoc is in a beta release, but you can get an invite by going to TechCrunch for an invitation code. This would be an excellent tool for entrepreneurs starting out. Forgetting scouring the web for templates, just go to DocStoc!
Positivo Glasses
The world is what it is, and no matter how you spin it the world will bend to no one. Tonight I had dinner with a friend of mine, an aspiring financial planner, and I was reminded by this fundamental principle. It's mentioned in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, which I am reading on assignment for the Fellowship Program I am a part of this year. I could tell my friend was on the downs with his career. He is starting to feel like his efforts are not paying off. Sales is not easy. Tough as hell if you ask me. Sales is a profession where activity generates results.
There is something to be said about people who look at life through a positive lens. When this happens you start to notice more positive things in life. So what happened here? Did that person's luck ultimately change? No. Instead what happened is a change in that person's outward perception of the world. The power of perception can change one's interaction with his/her surroundings. Rather than seeing negative, feeling regret, or missing chances the person is now seeing positive, optimistic, and new opportunities.
It isn't that suddenly the world became more positive. The positive things were always there, but now you start noticing them more. Covey wrote that 'common sense isn't always common practice.' Thinking positively seems so fundamental that we shouldn't have to be reminded of it. We really do need it.
I have found that when I have a positive outlook, my surroundings become more favorable to my intentions. At work when I think I am going to have a great day, I normally do. Perhaps it's what you call willpower. Whatever it is, I am thankful for having this type of vision. I am productive because of it.
