Wow. It’s kind of scary getting back on here. I’m actually pretty nervous about this post. It’s been ridiculously long since my last one. I apologize to my readers for leaving you for so long, but even more to anyone who’s ever looked up to me as an entrepreneur. I don’t know how many of you there are out there, but I know I’ve gotten some touching emails in the past.

I won’t try to make this incredibly long. What have I been up to all this time? Well- I’ve taken a lot of leadership positions in my fraternity and that has kept me very busy. The social connections I’ve made in the past semester probably out number the number of connections I’ve ever made in the past.  I’ve made friends and brothers. I’ve definitely learned a lot  during this time and I’m being challenged everyday. I’m pretty used to “being my own boss” and doing everything on my own as an entrepreneur. However, the fraternity is forcing me to learn how to work with others, deal with difficult situations, outside input, and most of all (so far my most difficult challenge) dealing with criticism.

I sometimes wonder where I’d be if I didn’t join the fraternity. I think about whether I would have been better off. Would I have stayed more focused on entrepreneurship? Yeah probably. However, being a brother is teaching me a lot about working with others as well as allowing me to implement my creative side. Thus far, I have held positions of External Social Chair, New Member Education, and now Rush / Publicity Chair. I look forward to using my marketing skills to pursue a successful Rush this semester. However, being that this isn’t a one man show- I’ve already encountered a ton of doubt, criticism, and aversion to new / riskier ideas from my fellow brothers. All I know though, is that I will continue to be a part of this as long as I see purpose in it. If it any point I feel like my involvement is not a part of a bigger purpose, I’ll reorganize my efforts. I can’t see this happening soon as I do believe in what the fraternity tries to uphold.

As for entrepreneurship, I’m still promoting Walamu on campus and making new advertising partnerships for the upcoming semester. I will also be expanding to another school where I have backing from the fraternity. In addition, I am getting my feet wet in affiliate marketing and hope to create a consistent income by the end of this year. I’ll try to keep everyone updated on my journey, but if anyone ever needs to talk to me just shoot me an IM on AIM at romastaflex. I do tend to get lazy and procrastinate with email so just send me an IM anytime. Once again, I am so sorry for leaving for so long. I am grateful for every one of the friends, readers, and sponsors that I have made through this site.

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.

I’m almost done with my sophomore year here at Rutgers with only two more final exams to go on Wednesday. I promise I will get back to blogging then and I know many of you have been sending me emails which I have unfortunately been neglecting. I will get to those asap, sorry. I intend to respond to all of them so don’t worry. Meanwhile, if you have facebook and you’re doing big things, request an invitation to my new facebook group: http://rutgers.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2347338415&ref=mf   (The Real Go Gettas)

My apologies for not having posted in a few weeks. I had been extremely busy and under extenuating circumstances which kept me from posting.

To be honest, the last few weeks have been about keeping myself pushing hard towards my goals even when I feel like I’m at my breaking point. When you feel like you can’t take it anymore, when you start questioning why you’re doing what you’re doing, when you feel like your body is decaying from your consistent efforts and is about to collapse, THAT’S the moment where you have to push just a little harder to realize your goals. Block out all that pain and visualize yourself having achieved your goal. It’s at your breaking point that you will need the most motivation and it is that point at which you need to keep pushing the most.

All-nighters, crack-of-dawn mornings, and physical exhaustion have been the norm for me for the past few weeks, but I am happy to say that I stuck to it at my breaking point and am very proud to have reached my goal.

So just remember- keep pushing.

early spring. At least, let’s hope that’s the case.
With February already here, it’s crazy to think that spring and summer are right around the corner with only three months of school left. A lot of students on campus have already planned out their summers or are in the process of doing so. As for myself, being a pre-business student, it’s hard not to take notice of all the investment banking firms recruiting on campus. A few weeks ago, Goldman Sachs was on campus and just this past week Barclays Capital made a stop at Rutgers. I did not attend the information session for Goldman Sachs as I knew I would be impressed by them and would start getting that cut throat sensation of being the best in class and doing everything I can to get “that job.” I ended up going to the Barclays Capital presentation as I looked up their website and they seemed to be different from the other firms in terms of how they relate with their interns and their size. I thought it might be interesting to see how a smaller (albeit pretty big) investment bank competes for recruits against bigger companies. I was, in fact, impressed with Barclays and they seem to be a great place to start off a career. I might also look at Lehman Brothers as a place to start off as my cousin worked there for a few years. A career, however, is not exactly what I’m looking for as you well know. Nevertheless, I think that if an opportunity came with a great enough learning experience that would allow for individual growth, I might consider it.

Other considerations for this summer include spending a month or two abroad doing something productive (i.e., teaching students about business/entrepreneurship), finding a mentor and perhaps shadowing a successful entrepreneur, or just plain seeing the world.

Cool, I’ve finally been tagged for the first time thanks to Adnan over at Blogtrepreneur.

I’m not a big movie guy but here are five of my favorites in no particular order:

• Boiler Room
• The Good Sheperd
• Collateral
• Minority Report
• Wall Street

The Web 2.0 Effect

(aff.)
With so many e-books out there today, the good ones are really few and far between. The priceless ones are even more rare. The Web 2.0 Effect is clearly one of the latter. This book was not written merely for the purpose of making a quick buck on the Internet, but rather really makes a sense of all the hype out there and let’s the reader know what exactly makes sites like Facebook and YouTube a success. If you are an entrepreneur or own a Web 2.0, this is an absolute must read. There have been too many failures by companies trying to mock the success of the now few behemoths in the Web 2.0 world to think that you already know what it takes. Don’t look over the most important aspect of your business: the way it’s execution. The information found in this ebook is absolutely invaluable to the success of your business and if you miss out on even the small stuff in this book, you’ll be very behind.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve added a couple new plugins to the site. First off, you can see the Top Commentators for the month in the right sidebar. Your name will be linked with the URL you use to comment on this site. Furthermore, if anyone links to a post on this site, they automatically receive a link back from this blog as opposed to simply a trackback.

How to Blog for Profit for Beginners
If you’re just getting started with blogging, I would recommend getting an account at blogger.com. Get a free blog set up and choose a niche that you think would be profitable. To get an idea of what keywords are profitable, use the keyword tool provided to you by Google on your Google Adwords account. Following this look for articles related to your niche that you can use for free from sites such as ezinearticles.com. If you are going to be writing your own content, make sure the niche you pick is something you are passionate about.
This is the process I used with my first AdSense project, MesoSource. I must say the research paid off as the site is still my top AdSense earner.

If you’re like me you can’t wait until break when your amidst exams just so you can get to implement your ideas. However, if you’re also like me, you feel a strong urge to just “veg” out over winter break with your new plasma TV (like this guy). It can be hard to stay focused on your winter goals especially with family around on the holidays. Here are some tips to keep you focused and productive over this winter break (that I myself will attempt to implement):

• PUT THE SIGN UP. Motivational posters tend not to be a permanent motivating force, but if you can manage to put up a sign on your bathroom mirror that reminds you every morning of what your goal for break is in one sentence, then that can be very effective. Personally, mine is going to be taken from Steve Jobs: “If today was your last day on Earth, is how you are about to spend it the way you would?”

• SET YOUR GOALS. Set your goals for the next day, the night before. If you’ve never done this before try it for 28 days and make it a habit. Also, have specific goals that you want to reach over winter break.Whether that means travelling to certain cities or meeting a certain sales goal, write it all down.

• BET AGAINST FAILURE: To ensure yourself some motivation in reaching your goals, why not bet failure against the one thing you as an entrepreneur are afraid to lose the most? Write out a check of a significant amount of money and give it to a friend that you trust. Tell them that they are allowed to cash that check for themselves or for a charity you’d like if you do not reach your particular goals. This can prove to be a very motivating technique.

Sometimes things just go downright bad. After two weeks of hardcore promoting and going door-to-door and dorm-to-dorm with my associate, it was just last night that it became apparent Walamu was not letting users post their items. I was wondering why I wasn’t getting any new posts…

By the looks of it, we lost out on at least 30 new users posting books at a horrible time considering this is the time of year when most students are selling their textbooks.

Yeah that news didn’t make for a good night. Throw final exams on top of that and you’ve got a real recipe for a not-so-great mood.

It should have been caught earlier, but I figured I would have gotten a feedback email from a user if the site was not working properly. Now I know not to rely on that.

The site is in working order now and hits are at their all-time high. I’m going to use what I learned this semester and do everything I can to propel Walamu to the next level for the spring semester.