INVICTUS (William Ernest Henley)

Invictus is a short poem by an English poet William Ernest Henley (1849-1903). It was also known to be a favorite of a former South African President, Nelson Mandela. This year, it was again brought into world attention as a themeline of a worldwide hit movie "Invictus" - a movie based on a true story of how former President Nelson Mandela used a popular sport of Rugby to re-unite the people of his nation.

As a poem, it tells of how man overcomes any form or circumtance of hardship or adversity without the feel of fear and defeat. Invictus means unconquered or undefeated.

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

How to get a good logo design in a cheap way

Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk in combination with outsourcing your design task to Elance, you can get great designs and user feedback very quickly, easily and for very little money.

Step 1: Post your job “design a logo” on Elance (elance.com). Be sure to include instructions including other designs that inspire you and a description of your product vision and intended audience.

Step 2: After selecting a designer, ask them to create 3 to 5 draft design mocks

Step 3: Using mechanical turk (mturk.com), submit each design option to mechanical turk as a survey (e.g. “which design do you like best”). You can choose any number of people to answer your survey. Estimated cost: 100 people at $0.10 each = $10

Step 4: Review results.

I’ve found that using this technique that for about $10 I can get around 100 people to tell me which design they prefer and offer suggestions. Also, I usually ask for the age, country and background of the participant so I can filter down to an audience that matches my purposes.

This tip was provided by Joe H. Excellent tip Joe!