Turning your Passion into Profit!

Every year in May, Warren Buffett holds his annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders' meeting in Omaha. It's really a three-day, three-ring circus of presentations, marketing, schmoozing, shopping...extreme capitalism at its best. Many people know about this annual meeting and Omaha is host to so many people representing many cities and countries.

What a lot of people don't know about is BIGOmaha, a three-day event with a focus on entrepreneurs making their dreams and passions come true. The list of speakers is astounding and the stories and presentations that they share with everyone are inspirational. We're truly lucky to have such an event exist in Omaha and to watch it grow into something even bigger.

This past year BIGOmaha had some really noteable speakers, one of whom was zappos.com CEO, Tony Hsieh. If you're a woman, you know about zappos. When I was an accessories editor, I knew a lot about zappos.com since a lot of our featured items were credited to them so that our readers could go and buy the shoes from the ease of their couch!

What a lot of people might not know is that Tony Hsieh became a multi-millionaire only a few years after graduating from college. Not from zappos but from another company called Link Exchange that he co-founded with a college buddy. At the age of 24, he sold Link Exchange for $265 million to Microsoft. Not bad for someone a couple years out of college.

At BIGOmaha, Tony not only gave a very moving presentation but in a true Oprah-like fashion, gave everyone in attendance a free advance copy of his new book, Delivering Happiness. He also created a blogger program that allowed people who had blogs to request an advance copy with the caveat that you had to write an honest review of the book sometime during the week of the launch. The blogger program also included a second copy for us bloggers to use as a give away promotion.

On June 7th, Delivering Happiness arrived at stores nationwide. Already, it's become #1 at Barnes and Noble and is on a slight back order on Amazon.com. But of course, if you want a FREE advance paperback edition, keep reading to find out how you can enter to win. The book is a true personal account of how he went from a elementary school kid with ambitious plans to make money to a grown up kid with ambitious plans to create something he was passionate about with the money he was fortunate to have.

Whether you're a woman who loves shopping from zappos.com, a woman who wants to climb the corporate ladder, a guy who wants to know how a 24 year old kid became a multi-millionaire or a guy who wants to know the meaning of life (ok, maybe that's a stretch), Delivering Happiness is a book that is an easy read and full of inspiring stories about how Tony Hsieh turned his passions into profits. (And I love the title; shoes make women extremely happy and therefore, you definitely can say that Tony delivers happiness everyday to men and women and children all over the world!)

I related on so many levels and laughed along with his very familiar stories. Tony writes about being the child of immigrants from Asia, the dreams that they had, the stereotypical strict upbringing (school, musical instruments). I loved reading about all his successful and failures in being a young entrepreneur and also loved that along the way, he picked up the game of poker and found the table talk and camaraderie in the Vegas rooms to be inspiring and fun. I know that in my own memoir that I am working on that the game of poker really helped shape me to become who I am today.

Delivering Happiness is written in a language that is conversational, as if Tony's sitting with you on your back porch, drinking some beers, telling you about his adventures in middle school and beyond. It's a fun, easy read and I definitely recommend it as a summer beach read that you'll want to pass along to friends. It's appearing to be sold out all over the place, but as a reader of PFO, you can enter to win a free advance paperback copy of the book by commenting below about what your passion is and how you would want to turn it into profit.

So tell us what your passion is in our comment box, we'll pick the winner and put it in the comment section of this post at a latter date.

Welcome to BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY MEETING 2010!

It's the first weekend of May and that means about 30,000 people will descend to Omaha to participate in the three-day, three-ring circus that is Warren Buffett's annual shareholder's meeting for his company BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY.

If you're one of the lucky people who arrived today, you're in for a real treat with severe thunderstorms and a mini tornado watch! There's nothing like midwest thunderstorms; they're eerily romantic and absolutely frightening at the same time.

But hopefully once this passes, we'll be in for some 65 degree temps for the rest of the weekend...

Warren and the gang keep the shareholders pretty busy but if you have some down time, we recommend you of course come by the Troc and check out all our new spring merch! Everything from cool Joie oxfords to our classic gifts like the ceramic NYC We Are Happy To Serve You Greek coffee cups (and in honor of the original paper version's creator who just died today, the Troc will be giving the $13 cup for free with any purchase over $50 FRIDAY, APRIL 30th ONLY! Just mention this blog post to receive your free NYC cup with your $50+ purchase). We are also going gaga for this Anya Hindmarch glitter clutch...we only have one more left in the shop...who will be the lucky BERKIE who gets to take it home with them? Oh, by the way, we'll be offering FREE SHIPPING to those out-of-towners who show us their BRK Meeting Credentials and mention this blog post...

But besides shopping, what else are you gonna do? Eat, of course! At the Troc, pick up our complimentary guide of what to do, see and eat in the Old Market of Omaha. But if you're looking to dine beyond the Old Market, skip the lines at Gorat's and Piccolo Pete's (two of Warren's favorites) and if you're like me and my NYC and Omaha friends, we love our steaks medium rare and done "whiskey-style" at the Drover. If you want some really tasty Thai food, check out one of my favorites: Taste of Thailand at 157th and Center. Really great curries and delicious soups...but I'd avoid the pad Thai. For a delicious burger without all the fuss (it's served on a napkin), go to Stella's in Bellevue. They also have great fries and onion rings. For unbeatable Mexican food, go to Rivera's on 120th and Blondo and please order Sparky's nachos, the chicken enchiladas mole or BO's pork enchiladas...and get the sopapillas for dessert...heaven!

Ok, but if you want to stay local in the Old Market, these are my suggested dishes at some of my favorite places:

M's Pub: get a lavosh; they're all great but most people love the Thai one

La Buvette: their simple salad a la Buvette is perfect, especially with the cornichons and add the goat cheese. It comes with their homemade sourdough bread and butter and that's enough to make the perfect light lunch.

Hiro 88: brand new downtown location of a West Omaha favorite; Rock 'n Roll sushi roll, salmon skin hand rolls, crispy garlic steak, peanut butter chicken and the Asian short ribs appetizer. Trust me, you will not be disappointed!

Stokes: go for Happy Hour and get a Moscow Mule to drink and order the Aztec nachos (they have an amazing curry sauce that adds a special something to the dish!)

Last but not least...BREAKFAST or BRUNCH...my top choices are: Lisa's Radial Cafe, a dive but oh-so-tasty...get the radial raft or even just the simple breakfast sandwich. The stuffed french toast rocks too. Dixie Quicks is a classic and just plain fantastic. Their french toast rules (with berries or chocolate) but my favorite is the Dixie Scramble. All I can say is Tomato Butter Sauce. Yum! Amato's is another great local restaurant and it's all about the blueberry ricotta pancakes (homemade ricotta) and anything with their homemade Italian sausage. And if you're feeling like having dim sum, run (don't walk) to Gold Mountain on 156th, north of Maple. They have all the pork buns, shu mai and lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice you can eat! And the Peking Duck is a steal and so yummy.

Dessert? Ted and Wally's for ice cream downtown and eCreamery in Dundee in midtown.

That's all folks! Have fun in Omaha...it's a great town to visit...and as you can see, a great place to live too!!