Rohail Rizvi

Ugly and bulky enV to sleek iPhone

Finally got around to getting an iPhone. As you can see, I was running with a quite ugly looking phone from LG on Verizon called the enV. It was great for texting as it opened up into a full QWERTY keyboard, but seriously felt like carrying around a brick.

I was kind of concerned about being able to text on a touch screen, but I played around with it on the train ride back from New York after I bought it off some corporate guy down by Broadway (shady phone sales off of Craigslist FTW), and I was really surprised by how accurate it is while texting. Seriously, I thought I was gonna have to hit backspace multiple times, but the only errors made were when I accidently slipped and aimed at the wrong letter.

Now the phone is the 3G version, but it’s only six months old and I got a case with it. The reason I got it really was because I just cannot stand worrying about stats and absolutely must get Stats202 on this thing asap (just got it- this thing is awesome! Stats202 FTW)

The reason I got the 3G is because I can unlock it and take it with me when I go abroad. I’d rather not take a brand new 3GS when I’m overseas. When I get back, I’ll probably sell it and opt for an AT&T contract with a 3GS.

Seriously, even though most people probably have on already and I’m probably the last affiliate marketer to get my hands on one, get one! I don’t care much for all the apps and whatnot, but the luxury of seeing your stats by pulling your phone out of your pocket cannot be overstated.

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• Have eBay business up and running by June 15th.
• Get set up with rest of wholesalers.
• Earn $100 profit on eBay for this month.
• Earn $200 profit in the month of July on eBay.
• Earn $400 profit in the month of August on eBay.
• Launch curb painting business by July 18th.
• Have fliers done for curb painting.
• Read Brazen Careerist.
• Finish The Alchemist.
• Coaching.
• Sign up for gym this Monday.
• Work hard on Saba.
• Project SeaFire.
• Conference.
• Finish The Anatomy of Buzz.
• Take a BREAK. Travel somewhere. Anywhere.

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Yep, that’s right. I’m officially halfway through my college career. Or 100% through. Depends on if I decide to continue to stay in school. Right now there’s a possibility that I’ll take at least a semester off of school. We’ll see how I feel by the end of the summer. I have a whole list of things I want to do from backpacking in Europe to interning to getting a whole new perspective on business. That last one is really what this is all about. In the day to day struggle to make something of your company, one tends to lose sight as to what they are really after and forget that it’s the journey that counts and not the destination as cliche as that sounds.

For the next couple weeks, I’ll be looking for a place to intern for this summer. I’ll also be moving into the house on June 1st. Another thing I really want to do this summer is check out the West Coast. I’ve been everywhere from London and Paris to Saudi Arabia, and amazingly have yet to see the West Coast. I’ve always wanted to see what it’s like and I think the vibe there is much more fitting for me. I may also make a stop at Austin as I hear it’s a great city for entrepreneurs.

If anyone cares, here’s my list of things I want to do this summer/next semester: List

If anyone has any other suggestions in terms of what they think I might be able to fill my time with, let me know. What would you do if you had an entire semester off?

P.S. I have Doostang (Professional, invite-only, networking site) invites. If you’d like one let me know and I just might send you one.

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My last post may have had a bit of a negative vibe to it and for that I apologize. Sometimes it’s hard to keep your blog from your life separate. Other times you wonder if your blog IS your life or is it the life you pretend and want it to be. That’s something I’ve been thinking about lately because sometimes it seems like it’s just a facade. I guess I should look at my achievements and tell myself that I really have done all that stuff and that they’re not fake.

While this is a business blog, I feel like a lot of young entrepreneurs and college students out there are going through similar things as me. Considering this, I may sometimes post about stuff that may not be directly related to business, but definitely something a majority of my readers might be able to relate to. LIfe isn’t all about business, afterall.

Right now, I’m taking it easy. I don’t really know where I’m going. Yeah I’m in a fraternity, which is great. However, I’m not doing the many other things I want to do. I don’t even want to go to school anymore because there are so many things it keeps me from doing. There are so many books like Think and Grow Rich and Branson’s Losing my Virginity that I still haven’t gotten to. I still don’t have a steady stream of income coming in like I want to, but I’m working on that. Hopefully, next school year will bring more success with Walamu and maybe I’ll even find some funding. But most of all I want to re-examine my goals and find out where I want to go. What do I want from life is the question. I want this upcoming summer to be one of action as well as one of both relaxation and progress.

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Just to let everyone know, I’m still giving away a copy of Campus CEO. Simply link to Our Story and I will select a random trackback to send the book to (Must be in the U.S. to win).
Furthermore, feel free to subscribe to my blog by clicking the big orange button below.

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It’s officially spring break here at Rutgers. I plan to relax this time and not stress myself out like winter break.

It’s also time for lots of students to plan out their housing situation for next year. As for me, I’ll be living in a house with a few good friends. Turns out it’s a lot cheaper than dorming and a lot more room .

To be honest, I live 15 minutes away from college so I could have commuted. However, I felt that the intangible assets I would have gained from living on campus were worth greater than the monetary assets I would lose.

Now since I’m practically paying for college on my own from here on out, I’ve got a little thinking to do. Here’s the plan:

Originally I was going to work the entire summer to save up for $6000 worth of rent.

Now I feel it’d be a better idea to get a private college loan for the house and work the entire summer to invest in a particular stock that I absolutely want to invest in. This stock is one I’ve kept my eye on for a very long time and I predict at least a 100% return. I know some of you are shouting “what is this crazy kid thinking” in front of your screens. Well yeah, I wasn’t going to refute that.

So say I earn $5000 over the summer. 100% return on that over say 5 years yields my rent practically being paid for on it’s own. I start paying off my loan after college probably from some other means (not a job, hopefully), or if it comes down to it by selling the stock if it has already achieved enough of a return. The loan will be at close to 8% so it shouldn’t cut into the return too much on the stock.

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I’ve decided to giveaway my extra copy of Campus CEO by way of a linkbaiting contest.

Simply link to the Walamu story and I’ll select a random trackback from that post and ship you the book.

Good luck!

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Just a small update on how things are going. I haven’t talked about Walamu’s status in a bit, but the site’s actually doing pretty well. As I’m meeting more people here at Rutgers, more people are hearing about Walamu and the word-of-mouth effect keeps multiplying. It’s not at a level where it’s self sustainable yet, but most of the visitors that come to Walamu are via word-of-mouth only second to Facebook. It’s turning out to be pretty hard to shift the focus from the marketplace to the classifieds aspect of the website. Since textbook season is over, I’ve been working on pushing the classifieds side of the website. I placed an ad in our college newspaper’s classifieds section about Walamu’s classifieds, but that didn’t do much. I also tried messaging people who were looking for roommates on Facebook, but then I get stopped for spamming. I know that people who are already in need of classifieds should be where I should target my marketing. Even with this strategy, however, getting the classifieds moving is proving pretty hard. Nonetheless, I think as more people hear about Walamu this should correct itself to some extent as people get more used to the website.

In other news, Randall Pinkett, the winner of The Apprentice and author of Campus CEO, will be at Rutgers tomorrow signing books. I will definitely be there and hoping that my copy of Campus CEO will arrive in the mail from Amazon tomorrow. If not, I might just have to buy a copy from the bookstore. If I’m lucky enough to get two copies signed, I might do some sort of giveaway with one of them.

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