WATCH: 8 Secrets of Success

Richard St. John explains the secrets of success in less than three minutes. I love the way he explained his points, very direct and I love the way he used quotes as examples of his points.

According to St. John, the 8 secrets of success are:
- PASSION
- WORK
- FOCUS
- PERSIST
- IDEAS
- GOOD
- PUSH
- SERVE

Watch St. John explain his points in this TED talk:

WATCH: Aware, Enabled and Empower - I CAN!

Kiran Bir Sethi, an educator, talks about children empowerment. In her talk, she preaches the 'I can' attitude and shows the children's journey towards Awareness, Being Enabled and Empowerment.

What I love about the talk is how she incorporated inspiring videos so we can really feel the essence of her presentation. Her smile and passion about her talk was really contagious. And though the talk may have centered on kids, it is something that truly inspired me to say...I CAN!

and I WILL!

TRAVEL: Got miles?

Great news to everyone who's saving up miles for the rainy day! PAL, in celebration of their 70th year anniversary is giving out 70% off on miles redemption.

Booking Period: August 2-4.

Travel Period: August 16-October 20 and November 4-December 7.

Just to give you an idea how cheap you can redeem miles, round trip tickets to Hong Kong would cost you only 4,500 miles (14,000 miles are needed on non-promo days).

Click on the image to know more about PAL's Mabuhay Miles promo.

WATCH: Guy Kawasaki's The Art of the Start

Guy Kawasaki talks about ten important things to consider when starting a business. According to Kawasaki, a startup must:

1. Make meaning
2. Make a mantra
3. Get going
4. Define a business model
5. Weave a MAT (milestones, assumptions, tasks)
6. Niche thyself
7. Follow the 10/20/30 rule
8. Hire infected people
9. Lower the barriers to adoption
10. Seed the clouds

I love the way Kawasaki presents. He adds a lot of humor to his speeches plus his insights are really worth knowing. Watch his 4-part video of his keynote presentation about the Art of the Start. It's really insightful and entertaining.

Enjoy!

WATCH: What really counts?

Chip Conley talks about what really matters in business. It might be a good idea to show this to our CEOs. Maybe, just maybe, they raise our bonuses and realize what really counts.

PRESENT: Gapminder Desktop...presentation genius!!!

Found this video as I was going through Garr Reynold's blog site. Great presentation tool! I wish we had these in high school. It makes presentation of facts far too easy.

STAY: Hotel Venezia, Legazpi City

After weeks of squeezing budgets, and drooling over Misibis Bay, Joyce and I finally decided to just let go for the meantime our hopes of experiencing Misibis Bay and find a different accommodation for our Legazpi City trip this August.

While searching I found another great alternative, Hotel Venezia! This boutique hotel is located near the Legazpi City airport and is a great starting point for city tours and whale watching trips to Donsol. The price is way cheaper and starts at Php3,660 nett for a standard room, Php4,880nett for a Junior Suite and Php6,100nett for a One Bedroom Suite . The price includes round trip aiport transfers and daily breakfast.

They also offer half day city tours that cost Php4,000++ inclusive of transportation services and all necessary entrance fees. I've also read that most of the tourists wanting to experience whale watching in Donsol stays in this hotel. Since whale watching is one of the attractions (the other being Mayon Volcano) we are looking forward to in this trip, Hotel Venezia is the most practical choice for us.

To know more about Hotel Venezia, check out their site.

*photos taken from Hotel Venezia website