It’s been an interesting last week here. I ran into a little bit of a writers block myself, but fortunately I ran into some articles that have got me all excited and pumped up about some of my future articles. First I ran into a great article over at 43 folders called ‘How to hack your way out of writer’s block‘.

# Talk to a monkey - Explain what you’re really trying to say to a stuffed animal or cardboard cutout.
# Do something important that’s very easy - Is there a small part of your project you could finish quickly that would move things forward?
# Try freewriting - Sit down and write anything for an arbitrary period of time—say, 10 minutes to start. Don’t stop, no matter what. Cover the monitor with a manila folder if you have to. Keep writing, even if you know what you’re typing is gibberish, full of misspellings, and grammatically psychopathic. Get your hand moving and your brain will think it’s writing. Which it is. See?

That plenty of great resources, but next I ran into an extended article from Darren Rowse over at Problogger called ‘Battling Bloggers Block‘. As always with a Problogger article you get more than a screen load of information.

When I run out first sit down to work out what to say for a public speaking gig I often lock myself in a private room and just begin to speak (to myself) randomly on the topic that I’ve been asked to talk about. It feels a bit odd when you first use this technique but it’s amazing how quickly a talk begins to form in your mind as you do it. I find as I do these exercises that the first few minutes is generally pretty gibberish but that in most cases as I write whatever comes out that eventually I hit on an idea that is worth building on.

And if that is not enough, each of the 25 tips in his post lead on to larger more detailed posts.

I did also come across a few more articles as well that really had nothing to do with my little writer’s block. The first one talks about the importance of goals and that’s something that we talk about from time to time here. The post starts off asking ‘How Important Is Your Goal?‘ and ends with a strong message about the determination of one of America’s most prolific personalities that many people never knew, myself included.

Failed in Business - Bankruptcy, 1831
Defeated for Legislature, 1832
Sweetheart/Fiancée Dies, 1835
Nervous Breakdown, 1836
Defeated in Election, 1836
Defeated for U.S. Congress, 1843
Defeated again for U.S. Congress 1846

I also came across a great article that’s basically a who’s who for the web. Yahoo news and PC World recently published ‘The 50 Most Important People on the Web.’ While it is a good article and really great, I’m not sure that some of the people should be on the list. Outside of my own idea of their errors and omissions, I recommend you take a look at the list.

Here is the entry for Tim O’Reilly, and there are many other great ones.

36. Tim O’Reilly Founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media

O’Reilly coined the phrase “Web 2.0,” and he continues to cohost (with John Battelle–see #26) the industry’s must-attend Web 2.0 Summit conference. The Harvard-educated publisher laid his foundation in computer manuals. (Many a computer enthusiast would immediately recognize the intricate black-and-white line drawings of animals that grace the covers of O’Reilly books.) But his company has grown to incorporate the new media–blogs, podcasts, and online news–he espouses.

In terms of articles, that’s all for this week! Once again I want to urge you to enter into the Entrepreneur’s Poetry Contest. There currently are not a lot of entries, so your chances are looking pretty good!

Over the week, I’ve been thinking a lot about the benefits of working for one’s self instead of a 9 to 5 boss. These bloggers really struck a note with me, and I think you might enjoy their works, too:

12-Month Plan to Becoming a Real Estate Investor at Sillicon Valley Real Estate Blog
Summarizing the Wall Street Journal, this article shows you point blank: do these things first. Had I thought about a few of the things mentioned here before I dove into real estate, I might have been a bit better off. Patience vs. preparation…

8 Steps to 7 Figures from DINK
I’ve always enjoyed reading the personalized writing of this DC couple. Their newest book review shares a few lessons on stock investing…
They’ve already started this new strategy.

The Five Ways to Earn Money Part 2 on Pile of Coins
Without even reading the text, you’ll notice two obvious pyramids by Dennis… and notice that most of us aren’t quite in the right place. I love the get-to-the-point style that Dennis uses in this piece. His graphic says it all:

Have a great–productive!–week, and don’t forget to check out our casual poetry contest. Business majors welcome!

I always expect my Saturday mornings to be a little groggy. This morning, though, I woke up with a million ideas about wealth and net worth, the good feelings that make me excited to begin my day. The following articles in our achieves can help bring the same freshness to your Saturday.

After all, the weekend is the time to make money for yourself, not your boss!

• Your goals are the engines that move, how’s yours running?
  Think of money from a grassroot perspective. “I want a million dollars” isn’t the same as thinking “This is how I’m going to get my first million”

• I met a millionaire today
  … I never would have guessed it, though. At age 53, she hasn’t worked in years. Read her secret.

• Time: what I’ve learned in my 90 years
  This afternoon, I am meeting with a 90-year-old friend for lunch. He flew into town for an aircraft convention and recertification conference. He shared his wisdom on time with Aridni—lessons about today that we could all benefit from in the path to wealth.

After talking with Katie earlier this week, we thought it would be a good idea to do a weekly segment where we highlight some of the great posts that we find out there in the wide world. With that, here are a couple of great articles that I have run across.

Ten things I wish my parents taught me about money
Don’t take financial advice from broke people – I fell for the myth that you need to build your credit score, because people told me to do it, and what did I know? So I went out and picked up a credit card and found my self with $500 in credit card debt without even realizing where it went just a few months after having a credit card! I’m lucky that I realized that credit cards only make the bank rich and enable you to spend money that you don’t have!

It looks like some of Matthew’s advice had to be learned the hard way!

5 Skills That Will Help Your Startup
In a Small Business Administration study, five characteristics were identified as the most important predictors of an entrepreneur’s success.
1. Drive is the most important attribute.
2. Thinking ability encompasses creativity, critical thinking, analytical abilities and originality.
3. People skills are the ability to motivate employees, sell customers, negotiate with suppliers and convince lenders.

While this article really doesn’t contain much about actually helping with your business, it has a couple points to research further. It’s really more psychology of entroprenours.

5 Simple Ways to Make the Most of Your Intelligence
Your brain needs exercise just like a muscle. If you use it often and in the right ways, you will become a more skilled thinker and increase your ability to focus. But if you never use your brain, or abuse it with harmful chemicals, your ability to think and learn will deteriorate.

Here are 5 simple ways anyone can squeeze a bit more productivity out of the old gray matter.

This article has some great ideas to whip your brain into shape. Some of them of course are going to be a little harder to adapt to than the others, but some might help you more than others.

Thanks to eFIPO for making ‘How to buy your first house‘ the featured article of the Under 30 Carnival this past week, and congrats to Katie for crafting a superb article!

Next Sunday Katie will bring you some of the articles and posts that she finds.