What am I good at?
What do you do best? What do people admire about you? What skill has helped you most in your life? What comes easy for you?

What things do I like doing best?
What would you agree to do for free and at the same time that people will pay you to do?

What are my strengths, abilities, resources?
This is related to the previous questions. Focus on what you can do best.

What problem can I solve?
Is there a problem that I can solve? Can I make life easier for people? Can I make use of other people trash or waste product?

What can I improve on?
Can I make a process or product better, cheaper, faster?

Do I have a market?
Will I make a profit? Will people buy this product? Will they avail of my services?

by Noel Cruz, MD

Once in the Kingdom of Butterflies, the King was talking to his son, “In two weeks time, you’re no longer a prince for you will be crowned the new king. I am too old to be king now. Prepare yourself for the coronation.”

“Yes my father, I’d gladly accept the crown from you,” answered the prince.

One day, the prince was alone in his room when the first slave-butterfly entered. The butterfly brought with him a small glass filled with sweet nectar.

After tasting the nectar the prince shouted, “I don’t like the taste of your nectar! Where did that come from?”

With head bowed, the slave replied, “The nectar was taken from ten roses, your Highness.”

“Get out! Look for another source of nectar. When I become the king, I don’t want to be served such nectar. Get out! Out!”

The second slave-butterfly entered the room carrying a bottle of perfume.

The prince yelled again, “Don’t you dare go near me! I don’t like the smell of your perfume! Where did you get that?”

The slave replied, “Your highness, the perfume was taken from the oil of sampaguita flowers.”

“Get out! That smell is not fit for a king! Out! Out!”

The third slave-butterfly entered the room and with him were small containers of paint. The Prince opened his wings and the slave started putting colorful designs on them.

The Prince suddenly shouted, “Stop what you’re doing right now! Your colors are too pale, I want bright and shining colors. Get out! Get out!”

The Prince was left alone in his room. His anger remained even in his sleep.

When the Prince woke up the next day, the sun was bright and warm. His whole body was in pain. He was shocked when he saw his body. His wings and antennae were gone. He became a slow-moving creature with soft body and large eyes . . . he turned into a caterpillar!

The Prince shouted for help but no one seemed to hear. He also realized that he was in the middle of a field and not in his own big room. He cried the whole day thinking that he’s being punished for his cruelty.

Not far from where he was standing, the caterpillar saw a hundred soldier-butterflies. He crawled near their leader, the General, and introduced himself, “I know you won’t recognize me but I am the Prince in the form of caterpillar. What is the trouble about? Is a war going on?”

The General just smiled, “No. There’s no war. I am just preparing the soldiers for a major mission. They are on their way to a garden full of Santan and Gumamela flowers. These flowers store the sweetest nectar. The garden is a dangerous place as there are humans out there who catch butterflies for collection. In my experience, only twenty of the butterflies could come back to bring home the nectar. The rest will die.”

“But what will you do with the precious nectar?” asked the caterpillar.

The General answered, “We will offer the nectar to our prince, for he will be crowned the next king. He does not like nectar from roses.”

The caterpillar became sad of what he heard because he realized how difficult it was for the soldiers to gather nectar just to offer to him. He sadly walked away and continued on with his journey.

The next thing the caterpillar saw was a group of lady-butterflies gathered in front of tall bougainvillas. The flowers of bougainvillas were of different colors: red, orange, blue, pink, and purple. The lady-butterflies were picking the flowers. The stem of the bougainvillas was full of thorns. Most of the butterflies got hurt and some even died when pierced by the thorns.

The caterpillar asked, “Why bother gathering these flowers?”

One of the ladies answered, “We’re making colorful paints from the flowers. These will be used to color the wings of our Prince who will be crowned as king soon.”

“Forgive me, please forgive me” said the caterpillar. The butterflies did not understand why the caterpillar was so sorry.

The Prince then heard giggling laughter of butterflies so he crawled towards them. He saw very young butterflies playing around a tall ilang-ilang tree. They merrily flew up and down the tree two-by-two, three-by-three, and four-by-four.

They were gathering fragrant ilang-ilang flowers while playing games at the same time.

The caterpillar joined their merrymaking. “Your flowers are so fragrant, what are you going to do with them?”

One of the children answered, “We need lots of flowers to produce a small amount of oil from the ilang-ilang flowers. It will take a week to finish doing this.”

Another child said, “We’re making perfume for our prince for he will be crowned as king. He does not like the smell of sampaguita.”

They all continued playing around the tree. The caterpillar stayed and slept with the children.

The next day, when the Prince woke up, he found himself back in his room. He thought everything was just a dream. But when he saw his body, he was still a caterpillar.

The Queen of the Butterflies entered the Prince’s room. She stared at the eyes of the caterpillar, recognized the Prince and cried, “My son! My son! How did you turn into a caterpillar? Why? Why?”

The caterpillar did not say anything.

The news spread to the whole kingdom that the Prince to be crowned as king had turned into a caterpillar. Many leaders got mad for they wouldn’t allow a caterpillar to rule over them.

Then coronation day came. All leaders were present.

The King of the Butterflies said, “My son, it pains me to tell you that you can no longer be the king. Look at your condition, you are a caterpillar.”

The Prince sincerely replied, ”Don’t be sad, my father, nor even take pity on me. I am happy with what I am now. I’d rather be a caterpillar and experience the suffering and joy of the butterflies in our kingdom. I am happy mingling with ordinary butterflies.”

Immediately after the Prince uttered his words . . . blinding rays and flashes of light were seen . . . the wind blew stronger. Everyone saw how the caterpillar had turned from green to dark brown . . . his body became smaller . . . and cocoon was seen wrapping around his body.

The bright lights were gone and the air stood still. . . All eyes were fixed on the cocoon.

Slowly, from the cocoon came out small parts of a wing . . . something was coming out to everyone’s awe and wonder . . .

A beautiful butterfly who is the Prince emerged from the cocoon. He spread his wings and flew higher. The wings were so bright and colorful and fragrant smell spread around the place where they were gathered.

Somebody started, “Hail to the new King!” The rest of the kingdom shouted repeatedly, “Hail! Hail to our new King!”

How would you like to get the equivalent learning of a college degree?

The catch? Just take off one hour of your tv time a day. That is about 365 hours more! What if you take of an hour and a half? Two?

And use this time to enrich yourself by reading a book. In his recent besteselling book, The Success Principles, How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (available online for $13.57 as a pdf file or at National Bookstore for PHP 555.00 - soft bound), Jack Canfield advises taking at least one hour off your tv viewing time a day and use that to read quality books or materials such as self-help, motivation, success, biographies, interest topics, and so on. In 5 years, you would have read yourself to an equivalent education of a college degree.

If you take that a bit further, let us assume that the average person watches 4 to 5 hours a day. Taking two hours off this viewing time would and use this time to read, you would have learned an equivalent of a double degree!

Not only that. Studies have shown that watching too much TV dulls the mind (that’s why many call it the Idiot Box). Tacking Canfield’s advise to hear would help you prevent “brain damage” and therefore would be beneficial to you in the long run.

And you can influence the people around you, especially kids to read too, cascading the benefits of reading and lessening the “idiocity” effects of TV.

An equivalent College Degree education, a healthier mind, brighter, smarter kids. All these if you invest just one hour of your tv time to reading.

I recommend subscribing to email lists, ezines or newsletters in your areas of interest. The information contained are mostly expert advice. Best of all, it’s free. Here are some of my subscriptions:

Spiritual Insights
Soulfood Newsletter from Bo Sanchez
Daily Meditations

For Inspiring Stories:
Chicken Soup for the Soul

For Self-help, Motivation, Success, Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Brian tracy
Millionaire Diamond Mine
Jim Rohn
Zig Ziglar
sme.com.ph
Business Success

And you can always unsubscribe anytime you want.

Some of the websites I frequently visit:

bizdrivelife.net
moodle.org
littlecandle.net
internet time blog
Steve’s Digital Cameras
PC Mechanic
Project Gutenberg
MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition
Open Source

Back when I just started using a pre-paid GSM mobile phone in 2000, I used to load 250 or 300 pesos which was good for two months. Often, I would only consume three-fourths of the load and would feel cheated that I didn’t get my money’s worth. Another downside to having a pre-paid plan was that if you were not able to do a re-load in two months after you’ve used your last load, your number or SIM card will be rendered useless. Even if you do a reload your SIM will not be reactivated. It would only be good for 30 pesos from those who buy deactiovated simcards for whatever reason. No calls nor SMS, incoming or outgoing. You have to buy another one.

Just recently, I thought of a scheme that might make the telcos and the consumers happy. Telcos impose the expiration and deactivation of SIM cards in order to entice consumers to use them for the obvious reasons of profit.

These companies say keeping “inactive” SIMs in the database brings with it cost with no compensation. This may be true, but I believe that database cost is minimal. The more probable reason is lost profit.

Consumers like me, on the other hand, would like to get the most out of ur investment. My texting and calling pattern vary. There are times that I used up 300 pesos in a month. There are also times that I don’t consume that much in two months. I am also thinking about other people who use the mobile phone very infrequently. I think their investment on the SIM should not be put to waste with the expiration.

And a win-win deal unfolds.

The telcos make the SIM cards and “loads” will have no expiration date. Just load anytime you need to make outgoing calls or text. And you may be able to receive incoming calls and text.

The catch.

They must register with their telcos to avail of this scheme. And they should agree on receiving text advertisements as part of the deal.

Those who do not agree with the terms can always use the present scheme of expiring SIMs and loads.

The telcos get their profit from the advertising revenue and the consumers can get their money’s worth.

I believe this will:

1. Lessen the burden on the consumers by not being forced to use their load at a specified time frame. This may even teach people to maximize their resources. Text or call when absolutely necessary. You don’t think that you must use up your load in 30 days or so. You won’t worry of gtting your SIM deactivated. Load only when necessary.

2. Be a plus for those whose need is to receive only. Like children who are more often called by their parents just to check on them. Like me who would like to receive text and call you back on the free landline.

3. Advertising revenue for telcos. You have a database of consumers and relevant information - you can target your market. Then sell “Advertising Text” space to advertising companies! This is like wholesale text. Maybe even a mobile-telephone-marketing scheme. Which could spawn a call-center like company. More jobs!

4. Less cost in producing SIM cards. I believe that the profit margin for a SIM card is very little. It’s in the text messages and calls where telcos really make money.

5. Result in less scams via cellphones. Most scammers are prepaid subscribers. If they are registered, they can be traced. Plus, law enforcers can use this database too when needed.
An add-on value if you will.

These are the basics and I know there can be several versions and terms to this. There are loopholes and other specifics but in general, it’s a very promising idea.

Calling GLOBE, SMART and DIGITEL!