DO WHAT YOU LOVE...

What is the definition of a "Cool Venture?" It's an enterprise that is fueled by passion & motivated by an obsessive interest in a subject, rather than a focus on money as the goal. Working for money is o.k. but that makes the daily grind nothing more than a disagreeable necessity. Turning your passion into profit is cool.

A Cool Venture is a small business, fresh career, skilled trade or artistic pursuit.

When we concentrate our energy on things that we love to do, we will succeed because we will enjoy focusing on those pursuits. Work = Play. We will also love watching these ventures boom and will therefore spend more time making them all they can be. "Do what you love and the money will follow."

This blog will present interviews with entrepreneurs who run Cool Ventures and will offer rock-solid how-to information and resources on how to start your own. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so if I figured out how to do it, anyone can. The strategies and tools shared in this blog will help you to never 'work' a day in your life again.

Please send a photo of your Cool Venture to post on this blog: coolventures@live.com

For those of you looking to launch more traditional small businesses and franchise opportunities, please visit www.startyoursmallbiz.blogspot.com.

Noteworthy Individuals Who Never Went to or Graduated From College. Many Are High School Dropouts

There are so many possibilities and options open to us without attending college. We will be posting a directory of these opportunities on a regular basis with how-to details.

But, let's get inspired by looking at a partial list of business leaders, celebrities, news-makers, artists, musicians, politicos, journalists, writers and entrepreneurs who never attended or graduated from college. Many on the list are high school dropouts. The list is offered in no particular order:

Walt Disney
Heidi Klum
Bill Gates
Andrew Carnegie
Steven Spielberg
John Jacob Astor
Sir Paul McCartney
Richard Avedon
Michael Dell
Lindsay Lohan
George Washington
Carl Bernstein
Abe Lincoln
Carly Fiorina
Harry Truman
Ansel Adams
Julie Andrews
Billy Joel
Paul Allen
Edward Albee
Ray Kroc
Shawn Fanning
Louis Armstrong
Steve Madden
Andrew Fox
Yoko Ono
Sir Richard Branson
Karl Rove
Vidal Sassoon
William Randolph Hearst
Anne Hathaway
William Safire
Ted Turner
Charles Lindbergh
R. Buckminster Fuller
Harry Macklowe
Sidney Pollack
Peter Jennings
Gore Vidal
Steve Jobs
Ralph Lauren
William Faulkner
Mark Twain
Ernest Hemingway
Rosie O'Donnell
Chelsea Handler
Steve Wozniak
Dan Akykroyd