Before I embark on any project, I ask myself two very important questions. After I’ve evaluated the viability of the business idea, these become the focal point of how I move forward. You’re doing yourself and others a disservice if you aren’t asking these questions as well.

1) Will this venture create real value for people and society?

What do I mean by “real value”? It’s a subjective subject based on your beliefs, but there’s a difference between creating a high-end restaurant chain and a multibillion dollar pharmaceutical company. Is the end result of what you do going to be fulfilling to others?

I have started or been a part of projects because they could make a real difference in people’s lives. Spine-Health is depended on by millions each year for pain information and community. Buck the Slump was an effort to provide valuable information to people seeking news about the recession, an incredibly important subject given recent circumstances. I can tell you how the effects of the jobs I take on will have on the world.

If I don’t believe the job is going to provide real value in some way, I’m not going to be part of it. If you don’t believe in the cause you’re working towards, then what are you doing anyways? Peple who believe in the value of their research, their business, or their work just work happier and work more efficiently.

2) Will this venture create real value for me?

Just as important as creating value for others is creating value for yourself. Self-fulfillment is too often ignored by people seeking riches in the wrong places or trying to do “the smart thing” or “the right thing.”

Sometimes, you just have to do the dumb thing.

If you love the idea, love working with it, and are confident you’ll love working on it every day, then why aren’t you working on it already? Your work is one of the core components of your life – treating it as anything else will only make you miserable in the long-term. People don’t take the risk enough for happiness sometimes, but in the end it may simply be a waste of your passion and your talent on the world.

So ask yourself about value before embarking on any project. But if you know the answer to these questions, then find a way to make it work. And don’t be afraid to reach a little farther than you’re used to.

I’m sorry I am not able to give you a far more exciting update today. My next post will be about my upcoming Facebook Reconnection Experiment, so I hope you watch out for that article.

In the meantime, I want to talk about Business Cards once again. I talked about Business Cards in a previous article, especially about how a person looking at your card for an extra half second or talking about it with friends will go a long way towards people remembering you.

My cards, as a rule, are unique per person and are memorable. I’ve been on a “fortune cookie” theme recently, writing a different fortune per card, my favorite being “He who throws dirt loses ground.”

Here is version 2.0 of my fortune cookie business card (front and back):

The Pros:

• Unique card for every person
• Great for impression the ladies
• Professional designed. Sort of – A wonderful woman took pity on my horrendous design and gave it a makeover. If you like her work, I’m glad to hand out her contact info.
• Inexpensive
• Everything is very clear on my card

The Cons:

• Tinted and unflattering picture of myself – my new Facebook photo is far better. Pick the right picture, and don’t do it in a rush like I did.
• Needs my name on the front and the back
• Takes too much time to write in fortunes – no business card is worth that much
• TechThrill is being delayed while I finish other projects – I don’t need it so prominently on my card
• No Twitter contact info

I’ve learned from this card and will use that to build my next card. Business Card 3.0 will be a completely different design – I have an idea in my head, but I will wait until I am done with these before thinking of a new design.

Remember, your business card needs to stand out if it’s going to be useful in any way.

It’s shocking how much things can change in two years.

Two years ago, Facebook launched a feature called News Feed, which allows you to see what you’re friends are up to without having to visit all of their profiles. When it first launched on September 5th, 2006, I hated it. So I created Students Against Facebook News Feed that morning to protest it.

The News Feed revolt was the result.

I hated it. I really did. So I fought, and others fought with me. And we got our wish, I had the chance to talk to Facebook CEO/Founder Mark Zuckerberg, and life went on.

Now, two years later, the same revolt has begun against the new Facebook profile redesign.

I’ve already been asked a few times where I stand. So I thought I would blog about how I feel about it publicly.

First of all, I don’t think news feed is an invasion of privacy anymore. You can read my Mashable article on the subject of social media and privacy, but I’ll give you the jist:

Change is good. And change makes us angry.

The current Facebook design is a great design, but it can no longer contain the needs of its users. The users don’t quite understand that, but Facebook does.

Facebook has been migrating towards a more open stream of information – that’s why your feed and your wall are the first thing you see when you look at a new profile. This is a way to a more social, more interactive, more person-based future. And with all of the new features Facebook wants to implement to accomplish that goal, it can’t keep the old design around.

Designing features for two designs is simply a nightmare. Just ask ANYONE who has to design for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and the dreaded Internet Explorer 6.

So to the members of Petition Against the “New Facebook” and the many other petition groups on Facebook, here’s what I have to say:

• I am proud of all of you for taking a stand. People may not think it’s an important cause and that you’re just complainers, but they are dead wrong. You’re trying to improve something that’s an integral part of many of our lives. There is nothing insignificant about that.
• Facebook’s listening, I assure you. I know that better than anyone.
• But understand what Facebook is trying to do. Facebook cannot continue to grow and improve for the future without the new design. It cannot easily make features for both designs.
• We didn’t like News Feed when it was first released. But can you imagine Facebook without it now? It has changed our lives, hell, the lives of millions on the Internet for the better. It helped paved the way for awesome services like FriendFeed and Twitter. Taking risks and trying new things tends to be a win-win in the end
• I hope you will stay on Facebook and give it time, even when Facebook does switch over. I’m not going to promise that it will grow on you, but that giving it a chance may surprise you.

It’s been a while everyone, but I wanted to talk about why it’s been a while. Hopefully you’ll be able to gain something from this little insight.

I’ve been overextending myself.

Isn’t that always fun? Workaholics always like taking on more and more projects until they hit a point where they realize it’s dropping their productivity in the tank.

So I have taken a brief reprieve and organized my work into tasks. If you don’t know, I have two jobs: My primary job as the Interactive Content Manager for Spine-Health.com and my second job as a writer for Mashable.com. In addition, I’m working on two business ideas (TechThrill and another unnamed project), this blog, a novel, the GMAT (Business school exam), and…

Well, you get the idea at this point.

I’ve decided to put things to the side and blaze through different projects one-by-one and get thme done before I add anymore or progress on anymore. I will still be writing for Mashable, working to grow and improve Spine-Health, and occassionally writing practical and entrepreneurial posts on this blog, but I will be putting TechThrill, the GMAT, and my other business project on the backburner until I’ve got the novel done. It is a chapter or two away, but I need to tie it together.

Expect me to vanish for a week to finish writing it. Should be an interesting way to spend my vacation time. I’ll be sure to inform you all when I finish. The next post I write will be a summary about my fiction novel. I’d love to tell you all about Tarell Larant and the war-torn world of Desel.

In keeping with the spirit of my blog, though, here’s a few things you can do to make sure you keep your focus and productivity at their peaks:

• Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize! Setting up lists can seem like a chore or a time waster, but you must think in the long term. Knowing which tasks are most important in projects and in life overall will make your work flow easier.
• Finish. My dad has a saying: Do what you say. If you commit to finishing a project, finish it before going on to the next task. 10 projects 10% done mean nothing compared to one project 100% done.
• Stop multitasking when you need to focus. I have spoken about multitasking in a previous post, but it’s worth reiterating – you get more done with focus. Turn off your email, remove all distractions, and work diligently through task after task. By getting distracting you lose your train of thought and focus at what you’re trying to do
• Know your limits and set expectations by those. You can accept every project thrown at you, but if you know you can’t put your heart into each and every one, you’re doing your team, clients, and friends a disservice. We only have 24 hours in a day, and remember: you need to sleep, have a social life (yeah, seriously), and relax sometimes.
• Do what you love. You’re simply going to focus better when you’re doing something you’re passionate about.