Twenty Habits of the World's Most Valuable Businesses

1. Operate in a large or growth market.
2. Have unique, timely products.
3. Sell only leveraged products ( i.e. not selling time ).
4. Have residual income.
5. Have great systems.
6. Great customer service.
7. Powerful brands.
8. Not dependent on any one person.
9. Usually first in the market place or a market leader
10. Attracts the best and brightest people.
11. Reward based on performance not longevity/time.
12. Have high margins.
13. Have few real competitors.
14. Keep innovating, with a flow of new products and services
15. Have an investor entry and exit strategy.
16. Have a big customer database.
17. Have great marketing.
18. Anticipates customers' needs.
19. Always adds values to customers' experience.
20. Educate before they sell.

Interesting Quotes

" To turn $100 into $110 is work. To turn $100 million into $110 million is inevitable. " - Edgar Bronfman

" Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. " - Denis Diderot

" The only way I can get to sleep at night is by imagining a secret cabal of highly competent puppetmasters who are handling the important decisions while our elected politicians debate flag burning and the definition of marriage. " - Scott Adams

" History does not repeat itself. At best it ryhmes. " - Mark Twain

" Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. " - Abraham Lincoln

" God is on everyone's side ... and in the last analysis, he is on the side with plenty of money and large armies. " - Jean Anouilh

" In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery? " - St. Augustine

* For more information on the quoted persons, google them *

Birth of the Trans-Sarawakian Railway

Recently the Borneo Post newspaper reported that a railway would be constructed in Sarawak for the SCORE project. Sarawak is sorely in need of better transport infrastructure, especially with the state's aim of becoming an industrial powerhouse in the 21st century. The benefits of railway transportation include the cheap transportation of bulk goods over long distances ( ideal since Sarawak is a large state), its capability of transporting huge loads at a time, immunity from traffic jams and it's relative predictability when compared to road transport (considering that the current road infastrutcure here is not something to be desired).

Even though the railway project will mostly be concentrated in the central region of Sarawak, where the SCORE project is situated, it was mentioned that the development of the railway would go on "beyond the year 2020". Could this mean the construction of a Trans-Sarawakian railway linking Kuching in the South to Miri in the North? The planned railway thus far is said to be 320km long, but who knows how long the actual railway could be. In an era of rising costs of fossil fuels, the possibility of a Trans-Sarawakian railway certainly seems plausible.