There was an article about France's best known blogger, Loïc Le Meur, in the Financial Times today. He has ten rules for achieving success in business. I found it quite interesting and copied it all here:
Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen. Just focus on a simple, exciting, empty space and execute as fast as possible
Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.
Build a community. Use blogging and social software to make sure people hear about you.
Listen to your community. Answer questions and build your product with their feedback.
Gather a great team. Select those with very different skills from you. Look for people who are better than you.
Be the first to recognise a problem. Everyone makes mistakes. Address the issue in public, learn about and correct it.
Don’t spend time on market research. Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.
Don’t obsess over spreadsheet business plans. They are not going to turn out as you predict, in any case.
Don’t plan a big marketing effort. It’s much more important and powerful that your community loves the product.
Don’t focus on getting rich. Focus on your users. Money is a consequence of success, not a goal.
Here are a couple of interesting documentaries on Iran:
BBC's Rageh inside Iran:
Rageh Omaar embarks on a unique journey inside what he describes as one of the most misunderstood countries in the world, looking at the country through the eyes of people rarely heard - ordinary Iranians.
One of my friends, who used to work for one of those top 10 companies, says that the data they have in this document is pretty accurate. It is interesting that some Internet companies such as Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN are not even in the top 10 list.