Paulo Coelho is one of my favourite writers! I frequently inspire others by giving his books away to friends and clients. If you don’t know who Paulo Coelho is, you probably have no clue how he sold 100 million books in 1 year. Wow!

Why am I telling you this? Well, Paulo Coelho is sharing his books online for free! Paulo wants his readers to “try his books for free”, so you can download his ebooks freely! How cool is that?

Next to “the Alchemist”, “11 minutes” and “the Zahir”, all his books are free downloadable

This is the best link to start downloading his books. Oh, by the way his books are available in English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Russian, Castellano and many more!

“The ultimate goal of a writer is to be read. Money comes later.”, according to Paulo. “Most people still prefer to read a real book however, (pirated) ebooks are more often used to preview.” so he states.

Sources : Pirate Coelho and TorrentFreak

A big thank you from a big fan! Paulo Coelho, you ROCK

So, what are you waiting for? Start downloading now! And if you want to speed up the process, check out my lifehack on learning how to read at least 3 times faster in just 15 minutes!

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck

Create, Connect & Contribute

I started as a Mac-fan, but changed to PC ages ago. Now I am thinking of switching again.

So here is a brilliant Apple campaign ‘I am a Mac’ , to convince people why you should be using a Mac or rather very recognizable situations when using a PC… This clip is a compilation of several ads. Stay tuned, because most of them are hilarious

So, why should I change to Mac? Or should I rather stay with my PC? Should I upgrade to Vista? Looking forward to your feedback!

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker & Life Coach

Deze maand sta ik opnieuw in Bizz Magazine!

Tijdens het schitterende event “In Shape for September” was Hans Hermans onder de indruk van de lifehacks die ik met alle workshop deelnemers daar geshared heb. Nadien heeft Hans mij nog telefonisch geïnterviewd en er een zeer interessant 3 pagina tellend artikel over geschreven. Lees het nu online!

Uiteraard kan je ook het magazine in de winkel kopen. Het artikel vind je op pagina’s 132 - 134.

Bedankt Hans!

Enjoy Every Day,

Bert Verdonck
Create, Connect & Contribute

Gisteren was het dan zover, mijn afscheid als voorzitter van Ecademy Antwerp. Na een bijzonder geslaagde avond (vraag maar aan de andere deelnemers!), was het moment aangebroken om officieel mee te delen dat ik een stapje terugzet.

Waarom? Mijn andere activiteiten zijn de laatste tijd zo aan het boosten dat het mij dwingt om keuzes te maken. Helaas!

De club is in uitstekende handen bij Erwin & Steven. Zij zetten de ingeslagen weg verder…dus blijven komen hé

Ook mijn rol als clubleider van de Belgian Blackstars heb ik ondertussen doorgegeven aan Geert. Ecademy Mumbai gaf ik over in de capabele handen van Nikhil Wad. In het kader van Ecademy, run ik nu nog enkel “The Lifehacking Club”. Of course

Ik wil hierbij iedereen bedanken die de afgelopen jaren heeft bjigedragen tot het succes van Ecademy Antwerpen, de Belgian Blackstars en Ecademy Mumbai.

Geert, Erwin, Steven en Nikhil, ik wens jullie heel veel succes met de verder uitbouw en kijk uit naar toekomstige activiteiten.

 
Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker & Life Coach

Ok, let’s lifehack a famous TV-series…

Why not The Sopranos? Yes, why not? So somebody did…

Have fun with the result

Of course, you can still view the 7 seasons and enjoy for 77 hours instead of just these 7 minutes

And tell your friends about this too…

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker

Your work is to discover your world
and then with all of your heart give yourself to it.

- Buddha -

So, what are YOU working on lately?

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Create, Connect & Contribute

Vandaag naar de nieuwste Lifehacking Academy in Maarssen geweest. In één woord : FANTASTISCH!

Het is een evenement voor professionals die meer tijd over willen houden voor de dingen die er echt toe doen! Zoals bijvoorbeeld manieren om slimmer samen te werken of om efficiënter te communiceren met Social Media. Uiteraard kon David Allen’s GTD niet ontbreken (meer hier over binnenkort!) en was het Tools en Gadget Hour bijzonder geslaagd!

Ook Taco’s Fingertips heeft me geboeid, binnenkort een aparte blog hierover…

Martijn, Anja, Frank en alle anderen hebben er opnieuw een mooi professioneel event van gemaakt. Ik ben er bij de volgende opnieuw bij! Jij ook?

Enjoy every day,
 

Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker

The Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly
One day a small opening appeared
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
It struggled to force its body through that little hole
Then it seemed to stop making any progress
It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could
And it could go no farther.

So the man decided to help the butterfly
He took a pair of scissors and snipped off
The remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily, BUT,
It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings
He continued to watch the butterfly
He expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge
And the body would contract
Neither happened!
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling
Around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It was never able to fly.

The man acted with well-intentioned kindness
But he didn’t understand the consequences.
The restricting cocoon and the struggle required to get
Through the tiny opening, were nature’s way of forcing fluid
From the body of the butterfly once it achieved it’s freedom
From the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.
If nature allowed us to go through life without any
Obstacles, it would cripple us.
We would not be as strong as we could have been
And we could never fly
Have a great day, great life, and struggle a little.
Then fly!

Another inspiring story from Yuni, by the famous Greek writer/philosopher Nikos Kazantzakis.

So, are you ready to fly? Spreading your wings? I have just begun and it’s a great view up there

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Create, Connect & Contribute

Some entrepreneurs have created a management limited company. They are using this company to invoice their management fee(s) to their operational company (or companies). Especially with several partners in the business, it is a very interesting construction, because everyone invoices their management fee and spends it as they wish through their management company. Even if they agree on the same management fee, some partners will spend more on cars, while others spend more on remuneration, art or literature, etc. It is also very handy if you want to sell one of your operational companies to investors or go public with it.

Why? All your “personal” preferences (and goodies like your car, phone, remuneration, pension fund, second car, real estate, …) are kept private to yourself (not part of the operational company). On top of that, you don’t have the hassle of changing everything when you actually decide to sell and investors start to ask difficult questions like why you are spending so much on your car, etc. You are free to do whatever you like with your management fee! If you haven’t setup your own management company yet, talk to your accountant about it. Annual cost of a management company starts at a very low price…

Now, when I created my own management company, I was thinking about how to make things even a little bit easier for myself. So, I decided to give my management company my name. This facilitates me in exercising my role as a director in companies I invest in (through my management company), because as a representative for my management company, I can sign just with my name, while other have to sign with their name AND the name of their management company. Technically, I have to do the same, but no one writes his name twice under his signature, right?

What else is very handy? If I have expenses that are part of a bigger group, like a training or a seminar with several people, it often is enough for our (Belgian) tax government if my name and my VAT number are on the bill (or invoice). Several friends had their bill rejected, because they operate under a different name (i.e. the name of their management company is different, so the government doesn’t accept it if only your name and not the company’s name is mentioned on the bill or invoice!).

Of course, I have a couple of extra tips, so contact me if you want to learn about them.

Enjoy every day,
Bert Verdonck
Lifehacker

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
- John Quincy Adams -

What are you doing to inspire others?
Are you stepping up?
Are you giving back?
Are you a leader?

Want to join the club of leaders, but you don’t have a clue how? Get in touch, I’ll tell you what you can do about it…

Enjoy every day,

Bert Verdonck
Lifecoach