What is “poverty?”

For some people it might mean going without the deluxe cable TV package.

For most of the world, it means going without the basics of life: food, water, shelter, clothing.

What’s the root of this kind of poverty?

Sometimes it’s injustice. For instance, in cases all over the world self-supporting peasant farmers haven been taken off their land at gunpoint so it can be turned over to commodity export farmers with political connections. For example, in Latin America, the rural poor are actually less well nourished than they were in the 1950s because now they work on plantations instead of operating their own modest, but productive farms.

But where things like injustice is not a cause, poverty is often not so much the result of lack of resources, it’s the result of lack of access to them.

Take a simple thing like water. One of the problems with water is it’s heavy – very, very heavy. And if you lack the expensive infrastucture to move water, then you’re stuck with carrying it. A shockingly large portion of humanity deals with this problem every day. Carrying heavy water over long distances, day in and day out, just to survive.

Can anything be done to help? Yes.

Here’s a fascinating video about designers who are specifically targeting the needs of the world’s most poor. When you see the simplicity of some of these solutions, you’ll wonder why it took so long for someone to think of them. Hey, better late than never.

Frankly, I find this stuff more way inspiring that the latest Internet gizmo:

New York Times Science Section video

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Interview with Tim Ferriss, the author of “The Four Hour Workweek”

Are you working yourself to death? Is stress and “overhwhelm” your constant companion?

Tim Ferriss says if you’re working more than four hours a week, you’re doing something wrong.

Is Ferriss for real or is this just a catchy book title based on fantasy?

First, Ferriss is very much for real.

He’s an achiever in the no-nonsense worlds of both direct marketing and martial arts, two highly competetive worlds where accomplishments are cut and dried.

Ferris is a grad of Princeton Univerity where he studied neuroscience before settling on applied linguistics. He’s also succeeded in putting his first book, The 4-Hour Workweek, on numerous bestseller lists.

A smart guy? Yes. But there’s a SYSTEM to his unique “outsourcing on steroids” lifestyle.

A punishing 90 hour work week convinced Ferriss he was going in the wrong direction and he discovered – much to his surprise – that his business operated more smoothly and made considerably more money the less he was personally involved in executing the details.

If you’ve heard about the power of “outsourcing” but have yet to make it work for you, Ferriss is the ultimate guide and we got the best of his secrets in this exclusive interview with System Seminar founder Ken McCarthy.

Ken McCarthy’s interview with Tim Ferriss

Click on the MP3 icon to start the interview…

P.S. You can order The 4-Hour Workweek from Amazon.com, BN.com, or at your local book store.

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Somehow I seem to always be out of the room when the Kool Aid is being passed out.

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The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig is a profound, if unsettling book, about the realities of business advice.

Who is Rosenzweig? A Wharton grad who spent six years on the faculty of Harvard Business School and is now teaching in Switzerland.

The book may be unsettling to some, especially those who are big believers in formulas for success. Many people want to believe that if they just follow steps #1 through #3 or #1 through #45 or whatever, they’re going to come out the other side with success.

It doesn’t work that way.

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It’s Mother’s Day and I just placed my last minute order for flowers on FTD.

I’m guessing that today is the biggest flower sales day of the year and that a lot of FTD customers are going to wake up to a strange charge on their card a month from now. It will be small (just $10) and many will not even notice it.

Here’s how it works…
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