I’m taking the holiday off to recharge, relax and eat tasty food, but I wanted to leave you with some good articles to dive into when you feel the need to escape:

Terry Heaton explains why survival isn’t a strategy and asks “What if the old model is gone for good and it doesn’t come back?” We’ve helped a few of our clients answer that question this year, but I’m not sure enough businesses have made the switch, yet.

Dale Dougherty at the O’Reilly Radar votes for Bill Gates as Person of the Year and gives some compelling reasons for his vote.

Enjoy, be safe and merry.

She’s lined up some generous sponsors to match up to $10,000 of whatever she raises. I know everyone’s funds are tight at this time of the year, but your $2.00 is genuinely money well spent.

Can you help? If you can’t spare the funds, Laura has a list of 10 free ways to help here.

Qui Diaz, director of strategy at Livingston Communications took the time to compile 50+ ways to give to charities this holiday, including options for those folks with more time than money.

Sean Aune at Mashable has an awesome roundup of 100+ websites for job listings, resume reviews, networking and more. Companies are still hiring, so if you’re looking, one of these might be a good fit.

An oldie but goody – Cyan Ta’eed at Freelance Switch pulled together a mega list of freelancing sites in case you’re thinking of picking up some extra work or going solo for the new year.

If you’ve spotted other great round ups, share them in the comments section!

Five years ago, the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia inspired her to find a way to help, and the very first Menu for Hope was born. The campaign has since become a yearly affair, raising funds to support worthy causes worldwide. In 2007, Menu for Hope raised nearly $100K to help the UN World Food Program feed the hungry. Each December, food bloggers from all over the world join the campaign by offering a delectable array of food-related prizes for the Menu for Hope raffle.

Anyone – and that means you too – can buy raffle tickets to bid on these prizes. For every $10 donated, you earn one virtual raffle ticket to bid on a prize of your choice. At the end of the two-week campaign, the raffle tickets are drawn and the results announced on Chez Pim.

This year, my clients at Personal Chef to Go are joining in the fun!

One lucky winner will receive their tasty Family Favorites menu, sure to please all but the most finicky of eaters. Each week their chefs create a delicious, four entree menu complete with side dishes to compliment the main course. From tender and moist grilled chicken to savory seafood pastas, it is sure to be a family favorite any night of the week! Each weekly menu is delivered to your door and because it is always fresh and never frozen, it is ready to eat in minutes. Prize package includes two servings of each meal (eight dinners in all).

How to donate and enter to win:

1. Go to First Giving , the site that manages this campaign, and make your donation. For every $10 donation, you are eligible to win one raffle prize.
2. If you’re interested in winning the delicious meal package we’re giving away, when you are prompted to enter a “personal message” enter code — the codes associated with this prize. If you are eligible for more than one prize — for example, if you gave $50 — you could apply two tickets to one prize and three to another. Simply write 2xUE28 + 3xUE28, or whichever combination of prizes you’re hoping for.
3. Not the prize you wanted? Check out the master list of prizes to see what else is being offered.
4. Finally, check the box that follows which says that you are “happy for the page owner to see my email address” — very necessary so we can contact you if you won!
5. The winners of each raffle prize will be announced in early January. The last day to give is December 24.

Accordingly, I was delighted to read the announcement out of the FORTUNE: Brainstorm TECH Conference about the first-ever Legatum FORTUNE Technology Prize of $1,000,000 for technology that offers practical and sustainable innovations that accelerate prosperity:

The first-ever Legatum FORTUNE Technology Prize was announced today by FORTUNE managing editor Andy Serwer during the FORTUNE: Brainstorm TECH Conference. The Prize fund of $1,000,000 will be awarded annually to for-profit organizations, or individuals, whose application of technology solutions has demonstrably improved the quality of life amongst impoverished populations in developing countries.

“This new Prize will help us seek out, recognize, and honor individuals and organizations that demonstrate the impact of technology on intractable development issues, establishing these visionaries as role models for a world ready for new solutions,” said Serwer.

Legatum is a privately owned international investment organisation, whose primary focus is commercial investment and which also applies its investor’s expertise in tackling long-standing development challenges around the globe. The partnership between Legatum and FORTUNE highlights a shared belief in business as a powerful force in development and the need for greater engagement in emerging markets.

“History has taught us that technology is a key driver of increased economic prosperity and has the real potential to improve lives in developing countries,” said Mark Stoleson, President of Legatum. “The Legatum FORTUNE Technology Prize is designed to identify the very best technology companies that are bringing innovation to frontier markets around the globe. Our goal is to highlight new model for effective development, and stimulate an escalating cycle of innovation and new investment.”

Competitors for the Legatum FORTUNE Technology Prize will be nominated by a network of technology experts and evaluated by a panel of eminent judges from the worlds of technology, business and development. Under the leadership of Iqbal Z. Quadir, Director of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT, the judges’ experience will encompass grassroots development programs, private equity investment, academia, and policy-making.

The program will culminate in the presentation of the first $1,000,000 Legatum FORTUNE Technology Prize at the FORTUNE 500 Forum in Washington, DC in December 2008. For more information, please visit: www.fortunebrainstorm.com/tech.

If you’re applying, let us know in the comment section!

I hope to do more in my 43rd year on the planet than I did in my 42nd.

I’m starting with a request – if I’ve helped you, or you’ve found this blog useful, would you consider helping my colleague Beth Kanter have a great 51st birthday? She’s set a challenge goal of getting 51 unique donations for the Sharing Foundation, which is helping to meet the physical, emotional, educational and medical needs of orphaned and seriously disadvantaged children in Cambodia. If they are one of four top causes to get the most unique donors, they will win $50,000 for the Sharing Foundation as part of America’s Giving Challenge.

With a $10 donation, you can help improve the lives of over 1,500 children in one of the world’s poorest countries.

I’ve already donated, and I encourage you to do the same if you can.

With that, I’m off to the beach to celebrate properly! I’m taking Nick Carr’s new book, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google along, so look for a review next week along with the official call for content providers for my latest project, Active Gray Matter.

The great image comes from Sara at Moving Right Along, one of my favorite NaBloPoMo finds.

If you’d like to keep up with what I’m reading these days, you can now follow my link blog by clicking here. You can also visit Active Gray Matter for my latest posts on self-employment and entrepreneurship.

Today is the kickoff of a new annual event – One Web Day – to celebrate all that the Internet has brought into our lives. I like it too because I get to make a wish at the end

For me, the greatest gifts have been community and connections. My life has been enriched by the ability to log online and meet people all over the world who have grown into dear friends or colleagues as a result of participating on an email list or forum. Sure, the possibility exists that I may have encountered one or more of these people in correlation to business, but honestly, the odds are pretty slim.

The Internet allows my friend Akiva Penaloza to share the inspiration (complete with old family photos) behind her latest film. Jen Burke uses the web to tell stories of coping with chronic illness that make me laugh and cry at the same time. Sally Bellerose is getting the first chapter of her book, The Girl’s Club, out to new readers and fans. Maria is re-purposing her law school skills into editorship with a book that came about, in its entirety, as a result of technology that didn’t exist ten years ago.

The McLaughlin’s are using the Internet to help small and medium businesses connect with new customers, which creates jobs and fuels the economy. Mike Heppert is building a community of people interested in solutions to childhood obesity. Sure, both of these businesses would be fine without the Internet, just as they were before it, but the web amplifies their expertise and allows them to innovate faster as a result.

Of course there are days when I get 400 pieces of junk mail and think, “oh, life was so much easier before computers,” but there aren’t many. When I get frustrated by obnoxious marketers, I can think about how the Williams Syndrome Association is able to help new parents find resources at 2:00 am without having to raise the funds to pay for a staffer to answer the phone.

One Web Day’s slogan is “One Web, One World, One Wish.” My wish is to see the Internet used not only for community, sharing, and commerce, but also for liberation. Technology holds great promise and capacity for those who cope with disabilities and chronic health conditions. These are precisely the people whom Active Grey Matter (AGM) wants to reach to make “business unusual” possible for through technology. Since AGM is a virtual business incubator, it is not bound by physical or geographical limitations, nor even by the clock. As such, it expands the business and human potential for everyone, but most especially, those who need liberation from traditional employment markets the most.

So, what’s your wish this One Web Day?

Tags: One Web Day

While everyone liked the theory, I nonetheless received emails that were basically excuses or reasons people “couldn’t” determine their own income. While I’m addressing all of the folks who emailed me personally over the next few weeks, I wanted to address the concept in general in case you were too shy to email me directly.

Though you may not know it, your behavior is guided by your beliefs and values. Some of those beliefs are conscious, and some are unconscious; however, they all impact your activities and decisions. When they restrict your decisions and choices, I call them “limiting beliefs” because they keep you from doing things.

For example, consider the following statements:

I can’t start a business because I’m not good at {insert marketing, hiring, sales, technology here};

Or:

I won’t make any money working for myself because I don’t understand {insert finance, taxes, bookkeeping or other skill here}.

That you are or aren’t good at a given field may be true, but that you will fail at business because of it is not. If you aren’t good at marketing or a specific skill, you can hire someone who is. No one is an expert at every level, yet people start businesses all the time.

The same goes for making money; while it may be true that you don’t understand something, it is not true that you can’t learn enough to understand it or find a qualified professional you can trust to help you.

Limitations are all in your mind. The reality is, you only have the limitations you perceive – the mind doesn’t have built-in rules that limit your potential. Henry Ford once said: “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”

It all depends on what you believe about yourself, and until you question those beliefs, they will continue to control your actions.

Having trouble breaking free of the thoughts that are grounding you? Contact me – I can help.

Need a movie cameraman? – robertoblasini.com – Hire this award-winning D.P. before you can’t afford him. L.A. based.

The ad itself isn’t all that remarkable, but what tickles my funny bone is that an individual can easily and rapidly promote themselves worldwide doing something they love. It isn’t often that I talk about Google’s great leveling effect, but this was an example too good to pass up.

Five years ago, if you wanted to hire a director of photography, you had to find an agency that represented them, have a referral or chew through the right phone directories. Today, thanks to Google AdWords and the decreasing costs of technology, I can type “director of photography” into Google and have 6 at my fingertips in seconds.

For small and medium businesses, having unfettered access to top talent via the search engines fosters innovation and increases productivity. Using freelancers and independents can dramatically expand the range of products and services you can afford to offer without increasing your overhead.

One last comment about the ad – he’s leaving some serious money on the table. Simply by changing his ad to read:

Need a movie cameraman? – RobertoBlasini.com – Hire this award-winning D.P. before you can’t afford him. L.A. based

Using initial capitals with domain names significantly increases ad performance. Making this change could increase his ad click through percentage by as much as 13% based on tests we’ve done using Google AdWords. Little changes can mean huge performance increases.